International Culture | Local Culture | Literary Culture | Fine Arts
I’ve always loved reading, but I don’t think I’ve ever been more grateful for books than I have been over these last long months, as lockdown drags on and on and on. A good story is one of the few things we have left to lift us out of our isolated selves. Here are ten… Read More Novels to Get Lost In
Lafayette Square is a seven-acre public park directly across Pennsylvania Avenue from the White House. It is one of the most meaningful areas in American history, where citizens have lived out the freedoms protected by the First Amendment amid statues of the men who won our independence from Great Britain. The Park and its surrounding… Read More Lafayette Square in Washington, D.C.
It might be a good time to stock up on champagne. The Trump Administration is threatening to impose tariffs of up to a whopping 100 percent on certain fine European products, including wines, cheeses, and olive oils. A tariff is a tax on an import. It is imposed by one nation on goods that another… Read More How Luxury Tariffs Hurt You
It’s been said that Ernest Hemingway read more than he drank. If that’s true, one wonders how he found the time. I’m often asked what I think is the best way to improve one’s writing. There’s no question about it: Read. This post contains affiliate links. For more information, click here. William Faulkner, who joins Hemingway… Read More Read Your Way to Better Writing
I was alone in my best friend’s room, sitting at the end of her bed, putting on my shoes. My mother was on her way to pick me up after a day of visiting. My friend’s mother’s fiance entered the room and sat beside me on the bed. He was 30-something. I was 13. He grabbed hold of me… Read More #MeToo
The wild daffodils are blooming in the back woods! April in Massachusetts is a time when life re-emerges, picks up pace, moves forward. The snow has melted. Flowers bud. The trees whose bare branches were coated with snow only weeks earlier are turning lush green again. For baseball fans, our long winter of despair comes… Read More April in Massachusetts
The face in the etching stares directly at the viewer. The light reflected on the subject’s full cheeks gives him an almost childlike look. But the sad eyes, and the lines above them, make him appear older than he is. Rembrandt Leaning on a Stone Wall, a self-portrait etched when the artist was in his… Read More Rembrandt the Etcher at the MFA
Earlier this month, I enjoyed the honor of MC’ing the Northern Virginia Tea Party Volunteer Appreciation Banquet. I was delighted to give a speech thanking these wonderful Americans willing to dedicate some of their precious leisure time to restoring our federal government to its proper limited role. Here’s a clip from my closing comments. I… Read More NoVa Tea Party Volunteer Banquet
