November 19th, 2019 | Architecture and Design, Europe, General, Travel
Andrea Palladio published I Quattro Libri dell’Architettura (The Four Books of Architecture), an inventory of his buildings, in 1570. Palladio largely invented the concept of the country home, conjoining the physical space of artifice with the metaphysical space...
November 15th, 2019 | Europe, General, Travel
In 1368, at the age of sixty-four, the poet and philosopher Petrarch settled into a home in the bucolic village of Arcuà in the Euganean Hills, just southwest of Padua. His daughter and her family joined him there; she ran the household while Petrarch studied, wrote...
October 18th, 2019 | General, transportation, Travel, United States
I have learned that I need to open up my Surface Pro tablet, my travel device, several days ahead of time and make sure everything is working. Specifically, I must check that Microsoft OneDrive is working properly. Once home, I booted the thing up and tried again....
October 14th, 2019 | General, the world and Mother Nature
Last year and the year before, mostly in the colder months when leaves litter the ground, a red-shouldered hawk (Buteo lineatus) frequently lounged in a tree a little to the southeast of our house. Not all the time, but just at the moment daylight arrives. The tree,...
September 19th, 2019 | Family, Genealogy, General, Indigenous Peoples
As the Reverend’s 80th birthday was coming up, her sister Belle called and asked a favor: would I be willing to print off a copy of the family genealogy for a gift? Like the one she had received from her kids on one of her own big birthdays? Reverend and Belle are the...
August 12th, 2019 | General, Politics, Popular Culture
We were preparing supper, I think, when my Dear One said, a propos of nothing, “You know what the problem is with Trump?” “No,” I answered, “What is the problem with Trump?” I held back the thought that essentially nothing is right with Trump. “He thinks he’s a...