Jo Weir and Mike Reilly cross paths at a Silk Road intersection

Jo Weir of the Thomson Reuters Foundation strikes a pose with Mike Reilly at an Uzbek restaurant during the 9th Eurasian Media Forum in Almaty, Kazakhstan.

Reilly, who set up the Canadian Financial Report in the 1970s and later became Reuters’ chief spokesman for the Americas, writes: Although having met some years ago when I did some work with the Reuters Foundation, Jo and I were in for a surprise discovery of another connection in Almaty. Jo was on hand in her official capacity with the now Thomson Reuters Foundation while I was working as the official English language rapporteur for the Forum.

When we fell into conversation on a bus carrying attendees to an evening event, Jo mentioned her hometown in southern Ontario, Canada. I responded that I grew up less than 50 miles away, over the US border, in northern New York State. The conversation quickly moved to Alexandria Bay, NY, where each of us recalled summertime revelry - in different generations. The small resort town at the Thousand Islands of the St Lawrence River still draws big crowds of Canadian and American 20-somethings with its bars, bands, dancing and partying.

At a Silk Road intersection, a remarkable crossing of paths which sprang from nearly the exact opposite side of the earth:

Almaty - 43.16.39N, 76.53.45E

Alex Bay - 44.19.58N, 75.55.40W ■