America! You don’t look a day over 235!
Archive for the ‘History’ category
Today is Victory Day
It is only in the last few years that, thanks to one of our resident Russophiles, LP, I have come to appreciate a good May 9th party. May 9th, as you may know, is the day that Russia and the other former Soviet republics celebrate as Victory Day, when the Allies finally overcame the Nazis [...]
1st class dinner, April 14, 1912
On Sunday night, RB and I went to a restaurant in central California to indulge in a recreation of the last meal served on the Titanic. The restaurant, called the Vintage Press, has a dining room modeled after the Titanic’s own dining room. The interior was magnificent, and a five-piece string quartet set the [...]
Up
(sorry, a bit slapdash! had to write a review for tomorrow morning as well) A habit I would happily be rid of: watching serialized things that are available to me without a waiting period one after another until suddenly I’ve demolished a weekend. The first time I did it was spring break one year of [...]
Stuff and story
There is always a moment when the holiday season kicks in: the first fluffy snowfall, the first decorations on sale in September, the Macy’s Parade, the smell of baking spices wafting through the house. With respectful acknowledgement that celebrations and interests vary, our family loves Christmas time and it begins when we bring the first [...]
Tuesday updates, 2011 edition
For those of you who like closing the circle, as they say, here are a few updates on posts from earlier in the year. 1. Vroom, Vroom. Though I was tempted to go ahead and purchase a 1964 Ford Futura, the lure of being sensible won out, no doubt to the relief of friends still scarred [...]
End-of-year playlist: what year is it, again?
Today I really loved my job. In the morning I taught Colson Whitehead’s Sag Harbor, which takes place in the summer of 1985, when the narrator is 15. (The book’s climax, if it can be called that, is the day that Lisa Lisa—and Cult Jam!—come into the ice cream shop where the narrator works and [...]
Irene’s mother
Six years and a week after Katrina, New Orleans is still bustin’ open with music and oysters and muffalettas and floats and masks and slang and cocktails and friendliness. At night the street corners spill over with virtuosic brass bands. In the “right” parts of town, you’d never know anything had changed. Just like always, [...]
Come back to the five and dime, Mary Hartman, Mary Hartman
The Husband and I have just delved into the first two episodes of “Mary Hartman, Mary Hartman,” the cult TV show from the mid-70’s starring Louise Lasser as the title character of a Norman Lear soap-opera send-up set in fictional Fernwood, Ohio. The cast also includes Dodi Goodman as Mary’s ditzy mother and Mary Kay [...]
