In 1368, at the age of sixty-four, the poet and philosopher Petrarch settled into a…
Corona Virus Diary 2: Our Government Behind the Curtain
The Internal Revenue Service wisely extended the deadline for filing federal tax returns until July 15, 2020. It’s not simply a matter of COVID-19 throwing our lives into disarray. Nope. The government has to think about all those employees sitting cheek by jowl,...
My Corona Virus Diary 1: Hitting Uncomfortably Close To Home
We watched the advance of novel Corona, COVID19, as it engulfed Wuhan, spread into other parts of China, appeared in Italy, made its way to onto cruise lines and breached the borders of the United States. We remember SARS, H1N1, MERS and Ebola. This was obviously...
Voters, Rich People and Hate
A few days ago I responded to a post on a social media asking who would be part of the “blue wave” in November. I answered in the affirmative, that I would vote for whoever ultimately won the democratic nomination, even if that candidate were my last choice in the...
The Mouth In The Oval Office: Our State Of The Union 2020
No, Donald Trump. The state of our union is not strong. You have demonized for three years the voters in 2016—a majority of all who turned out–who thought that anyone other than you would be an infinitely better choice. You have lied incessantly and knowingly in...
The Mouth in the Oval Office 2: Impeachment and the Liar-in-Chief
The headline for the article by Peter Baker in The New York Times (December 10, 2019) caught my eye: “In a Swelling Age of Tribalism, the Trust of a Country Teeters.” I started reading and came to this: Most Americans tell pollsters that they do not believe what he...
Christmas Letter 2019
My Dear One, noticing that we had a lot of empty calendar space from the end of October to the beginning of November, suggested that we fly off to somewhere in Europe. France? Italy? It took almost no time to decide on the Veneto. For ten days we nested in the...
Fall in the Veneto 4: Getting a Grip on the Biennale
I had long wanted to fully experience the Venice Biennale. In 2017, the curator of the American pavilion was Christopher Bedford, also the newly hired director of the Baltimore Museum of Art. The credentials created quite the synergistic buzz. The artist who...
Fall in the Veneto 3: Buon Appetito
I travel to eat. My Dear One not so much, although he takes pleasure when we hit the culinary jackpot. Eating is not just about finding those restaurants you want to keep secret from Tripadvisor and Yelp. It’s about the idea of food, the way local ingredients might be...