It’s not quite caveat emptor but the idea is similar. Tourism is primarily—the primary?—source of…
Down to New England 4: Earth, Air and Water
It is the light, it is the air, the dark featheriness of pine and fir, and the distinct chill of a summer’s evening. Our camp on Squam Lake in New Hampshire, my realest “home” gave me this with each visit; and now so does Maine. Whether it was the strangeness of the...
Down to New England 3: Jerry and Doffy
When last I saw him, the blue and lavender and green plaid cotton shirt Jerry was wearing made his bleached-denim eyes bright. The reason to travel to Damariscotta, Maine, was to have more time with Jerry before he loses his way in Time, to have dinner with Doffy and...
Wishin’ and hopin’ and thinkin’ and prayin’: a saga of newspaper delivery
Is the trouble over? Is all my wishin’ and hopin’ and thinkin’ and prayin’—to say nothing of my incessant bellowing at customer service representatives—finally paying off? Maybe. Monday’s and Tuesday’s papers arrived in a timely fashion, around six-thirty am....
Down to New England 2: The Lobster Roll Project
Yankees like me favor lobstuh; Chesapeake Bay locals–My Dear One for instance–prefer blue crab. We both love a seafood sandwich and on this trip north we dedicated lunchtime to finding a truly superior lobster roll. A search for “best lobster rolls in...
Down to New England 1: Of Art, College Museums and Labels
Art lives in that kind of white, crystalline light. It doesn’t just come alive; it takes on a whole new existence. Those top galleries in the “new” Yale University Art Gallery? They were a mystical symphony hall and the art a choir of angels. The new structure unites...
The Eternal City 7: Trams and Buses and Subways, and Feet
One often feels in Rome like the city fella who, asking the Down-Easter (voiced by the late great Marshall Dodge) for directions to some locale, gets a convoluted reply ending with, “But you cahn’t get theah from heah.” The historic center of Rome center has, in fact,...
The Eternal City 6: Colline e Scale
The Seven Hills of Rome (well, eight if you include the Pincian and ten if you cross the Tiber for the Vatican Hill and the Gianicolo) feature in legend and history. Sensible ancient Romans, Princes of the Church and the one-percenters of the 16th and 17th centuries...
The Eternal City 5: Architecture of Visions
In 2005, Jake Morrissey published a book called The Genius in the Design: Bernini, Borromini, and the Rivalry that Transformed Rome. Haven’t read it? Do. It’s brief, fascinating, dense with information about the birth of the Baroque in Rome, and it makes you care...