Foodie Poetry: With Apologies to Ogden Nash
No man is lonely while eating spaghetti: It requires so much attention. — Christopher Marley When I attended the Massachusetts Poetry Festival recently, I took a class on writing poetry about food. I’m off to Italy soon. What else did you think would happen? c. 2010 J.H-M and CultureChoc ‘Talian Food I would not eat the sauteed eel Not the…
La Bella Figura
Never wear anything that panics the cat. — P.J. O’Rourke The dress was sleeveless, a melon peach color with yellow polka dots the size of dimes all over it. Drop waisted, with a slight flair at the bottom. I felt like a princess in it. I wore it to New York City when I went with my girlfriends when I…
California Design, 1930 – 1965: Living in a Modern Way
Dean’s California — wild, sweaty, important, the land of lonely and exiled and eccentric lovers come to forgather like birds, and the land where everybody somehow looked like broken-down, handsome, decadent movie actors. — Jack Kerouac I went to California last Wednesday, in something of a time warp. A delightful time warp spanning the years between the big wars all…
GUEST POST: Off the Beaten Path in Florence
Ed. note: There’s so much to see in Florence that it can be overwhelming to travelers. Here’s what Prisilla Sciano, Marketing Director of Tour Italy Now, recommends. Anyone who’s ever been to Florence knows just how easy it is to be overwhelmed by its immense grandeur. In fact, the sensory experience of being surrounded by the city’s art and architecture…
Why Not Paris?
A walk about Paris will provide lessons in history, beauty, and in the point of Life. — Thomas Jefferson It may surprise people who know me, and who know how much I adore Italy and how frankly miserable I am when I’m not in Italy, that my very favorite city is not on the boot. No, my very favorite city…
The Things I Carry . . .
. . . with apologies to Tim O’Brien. His book, The Things They Carried, is one of my top five books of all time and has absolutely nothing to do with what I’m about to write. It’s trip planning season again. At least that’s what all my travel blog colleagues are writing about in their columns lately. This is the…
Pennsylvania Station: Lost and Found
Ed. note: Shortly after moving to Virginia, I discovered the Tinker Mountain Writer’s Workshop at Hollins University down near Roanoke. I applied for a spot in the Creative Non-Fiction genre and got in. Here’s a piece that I workshopped there and that has always had special meaning for me as a New Yorker. Hope you like it as my lead-off…
2014 WINTER LECTURE SERIES AT THE PICKERING HOUSE
Second Sunday Chowder & Lectures at Salem’s Oldest House Ed. note: I’m crossing over right now, folks, from my job as travel writer to my job as Executive Director of the Pickering Foundation in Salem, Massachusetts. I’m so pleased about the lunch and lecture series that we’ve put together for the Winter 2014 season, that I want to share it…
A SKI INTERLUDE GUEST POST: Madonna Di Campiglio
Milano on the Mountain Ed. Note: Martin Nolan is a travel enthusiast who likes to spend his winters on a mountain carving tracks and his summers on a beach sipping cocktails. He loves all things travel and travel related, and you can follow him and his views on Twitter at @martinnolan7. Read as he comes face to face with la…
Mohonk (and More) on the Hudson
I have an unusual relationship with the Hudson River Valley. As an adult living in New York City in the 1970s and ‘80s, the Hudson River formed the ever-present Western border of Manhattan. But even as a child living in the outskirts of New York City, the Hudson was still a presence. When life handed my mother more than she…
Travel Tips Newsletter
Every once in a while, Linda posts useful gems about mustn’t-miss travel info. Group travel? Packing? Where to go? What happens when an emergency strikes?
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