The woman standing at the front of the classroom never suffers fools gladly. Instead she writes theorems on the green chalkboard rapidly, with her back turned to a roomful of privileged ninth grade girls at this pressure cooker prep school in Memphis, girls poised for success in one venue or another. She is lean, a … Continue reading The Boldness of Eccentricity: A Remembrance
Art
Sunday Photo Essay: Remnants of the Adelphi
Broadway is the main drag in downtown Saratoga Springs, New York, a smallish upstate city with a distinctly urban feel and an appealing quirkiness that defines so many downtown districts coming into their own after a period of modern-day decline. A city with so much going for it—named for the mineral water that flows beneath … Continue reading Sunday Photo Essay: Remnants of the Adelphi
Manchester by the Sea: Reflections on the Human Condition
No one in the South ever asks if you have crazy people in your family. They just ask what side they’re on.—Julia Sugarbaker I chide my twenty-something for goading me to watch horror films with him when we’re together. Twice he succeeded some years ago, once for The Ring (do not go there, gentle reader), and … Continue reading Manchester by the Sea: Reflections on the Human Condition
Simple Living versus Excess (or How Not to be Insufferable)
It's dang cold in Vermont. Last week's record-breaking warm temperatures were but a tease: we woke up to 2° this morning. Still, I managed to run with Scout on Friday after work in frigid air with a bitter wind in my face (his ears were all aflap). On a positive note, I captured the moment he discovered a … Continue reading Simple Living versus Excess (or How Not to be Insufferable)
Art is the Consolation Prize…
...for the human condition. Catchy, isn't it? I can claim it only partly. Came to me in the car, where all profound thoughts outside the shower do, while I listened to the inimitable Meryl Streep discuss her portrayal of Florence Foster Jenkins in a movie named the same. Jenkins was a real-life character, a New York … Continue reading Art is the Consolation Prize…
A Day at the Museum: MASS MoCA
Every small-to-midsize Massachusetts town I've had occasion to drive through or visit these last three years seems to possess a seamy industrial underbelly, more often than not in plain view of historic dwellings in varied states of loving restoration or decline, depending. (Second Empire is hands-down my favorite iteration of the Victorian style, and it … Continue reading A Day at the Museum: MASS MoCA
Homecoming Finale: In the Company of Artists
That is one Gwynn Root, a beautiful professional ballerina who currently dances for Festival Ballet in Providence, Rhode Island, although she has danced professionally with several other companies in her career to date. Here she is more recently, with Festival this past summer, in an image from the WaterFire Providence website: I met Gwynn eight … Continue reading Homecoming Finale: In the Company of Artists
Homecoming, Part the Second
It is beyond me how 1000 miles disappear so quickly in the rear view mirror, or how four days dissolve in what feels like a half hour. It's what has transpired in the intervening hours since 2:30 Saturday morning when Handsome Chef Boyfriend and I began our long drive south to see family and friends, … Continue reading Homecoming, Part the Second
Architecture of a Day: Cambridge, NY to Williamstown, MA
Photo Essay: Found Objects
Moses Farm, Cambridge Arlington, Vermont Post Office Saratoga Springs Saratoga Springs Saratoga Springs Saratoga Springs Saratoga Springs, Uncommon Grounds Arlington, Vermont Arlington, Vermont Tag Sale Finds: Vintage Tablecloth & Pie Tin
Sycamore Stories 