March 31st, 2021 | General, Shopping, Time Passes, transportation
It seems you now have to own a smart phone in order to buy a car. I guess it happened after we bought Ruby, our Toyota RAV4 in 2017 and replaced her with Garnet, another RAV4, on March 25, 2021. Four years ago, the cars seemed to function on their own. These days,...
April 17th, 2020 | business and finance, Cooking, Kitchen and Table, General, Health, Shopping, Society at Large
I have long disliked going to the grocery store. From the time I was twenty and in my first apartment I made a list based on a strict budget, went in, collected items, paid up and got out. My mother loathed going to the store with me. I was boring, she complained. I...
May 9th, 2018 | Cooking, Kitchen and Table, Europe, General, Shopping, Travel
Apartment 1 in the Central Canal Apartments, Wildersgade, 15, in the Christianshavn neighborhood in Copenhagen is snug. No rugs for bugs and no room for much else. A rack accommodates clothes on hangers but stuff that would go into drawers must stay in suitcases. The...
April 7th, 2018 | Cooking, Kitchen and Table, General, Holidays, Shopping
What is it with making ordinary treats seasonal? I already went cuckoo when I nearly couldn’t find peppermint stick ice cream for my Christmas dinner menu—and I don’t see why the flavor should be available only from late November to late December. When I was a child...
May 13th, 2017 | Cooking, Kitchen and Table, Europe, General, Popular Culture, Shopping, Society at Large, Travel
Apparently, our neighborhood does not exist. Consult a tourist guide like Eyewitness Paris and there is an empty white space where one might expect to find Batignolles. The teal-green blob of Montmartre floats in a void separate from the colors that identify the...
May 9th, 2017 | Europe, General, literature and poetry, Politics, Shopping, Travel
What good American doesn’t dream of a pied à terre in Paris, especially now that we have elected Donald Trump president, lying, ignorant bully that he is, and the French opted for the rational and articulate Emmanuel Macron over harridan of the Far Right, Marine Le...