My Famous Interpreters, Cont.

Earlier this year, I happened to learn, belatedly, that my Baghdad interpreter, Salam Pax, was famous. This weekend’s issue of The New York Times Magazine brings 15 minutes of fame to another of my interpreters–Minka Baros, who worked with me during the Bosnian war. Minka and her husband, Igor, are featured in the What They Were Thinking section of the magazine. (I was not involved in their selection.) Minka and Igor are photographed while golfing in Sarajevo. As Minka explains, “This is the only golf course in Sarajevo, and it’s not even half of one. It has been open for two years, with just the four holes. We make it 18 holes by doing four and a half rounds.” I think, however, that there’s something wrong with the picture. Shouldn’t I be the one enjoying life at the 18th hole?

Author: Peter Maass

I was born and raised in Los Angeles. In 1983, after graduating from the University of California at Berkeley, I went to Brussels as a copy editor for The Wall Street Journal/Europe. I left the Journal in 1985 to write for The New York Times and The International Herald Tribune, covering NATO and the European Union. In 1987 I moved to Seoul, South Korea, where I wrote primarily for The Washington Post. After three years in Asia I moved to Budapest to cover Eastern Europe and the Balkans. I spent most of 1992 and 1993 covering the war in Bosnia for the Post.