August 26th, 2021 | General, Politics, Society at Large, Women
The Mall was quiet earlyish that Sunday morning as I hoped it might be. Little traffic, few tourists, plenty of parking. The weather report had not been encouraging but rain held off, clouds suppressing the sun that would have made the humid air intolerable. Abraham...
June 25th, 2018 | Architecture and Design, Europe, Gardens and Gardening, General, literature and poetry, the world and Mother Nature, Travel, visual arts
Every time I pick up a Ross King book, it’s longer and weightier. Brunelleschi’s Dome was a little bit of a thing, perfect for reading on a transcontinental flight. Michelangelo and the Pope’s Ceiling was longer but then the Sistine Chapel ceiling is a better...
May 10th, 2017 | Architecture and Design, Europe, Family, Friends, General, Memory, Travel, visual arts
Gounod’s Faust was the first opera I ever saw, and I saw it at Palais Charles Garnier in Paris in March 1970. As we ascended the massive stair forty-eight years later, studied Marc Chagall’s rainbow of a ceiling and gazed out over the loggia outside the ornate Grand...
May 17th, 2015 | Europe, Gardens and Gardening, Genealogy, General, Matters of the Spirit, Memory, the world and Mother Nature, Time Passes, Travel
It was possibly the best day of the trip. Or maybe not best. Maybe it is the one most firmly nestled into my visual cortex, the collection of images most likely to reappear when I am asked about Lithuania, what I experienced, what I remember. In television programs...
June 16th, 2012 | General, Memory, Politics, Popular Culture, Society at Large, Time Passes
Since bicentennials are a once-in-a-lifetime experience, my Dear One and I found it impossible to ignore the “Star-Spangled Sailabration” of the War of 1812. That war is one of those conflicts largely ignored in American education. We’re very big on the War for...