Memphis Con & Istanbul

[lsanderson]

Welcome, Interstate Satyrs
By DAVE ITZKOFF

THE yawning atrium of the Holiday Inn in Memphis had been silent all morning, but by noon on a Friday in late March, it began to bustle and hum with the whispering thwip-thwip-thwip of cards being shuffled and the clacking rattle of dice being rolled, with the shouts of victorious adventurers and the death throes of impaled orcs.

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36 Hours in Istanbul
By SETH SHERWOOD

THE Turks have changed tactics. For centuries, the sultans of Istanbul sent forth their armies, seizing territories across Europe, the Middle East and North Africa. This time, it's a style offensive. And the spoils of the conquests are everywhere. Downbeat neighborhoods have re-emerged as artist and night life enclaves. Medieval Ottoman motifs are winding up on T-shirts and design products. Plain kebabs are getting epicurean makeovers, and Old World hammams are being converted into jet-setters' spas. With architecture from the Roman, Byzantine and Ottoman periods as a backdrop, Istanbul is now the rare place where readers of Archeology and Wallpaper magazines can clink glasses with equal zeal.

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