Currently viewing the category:
"Literary"
In Tuscany about now, maybe a little earlier, the farmers cut away the old dead wood from the olive trees. The perfumed smoke rises up from the valleys into the cold air. Through it you can make out a distant cathedral, or a train station built by fascists. It seems jarring to smell destruction in [...]
1422, June 5th, Verona. A single bead of perspiration slowly creeped down the nose of Paolo Bianco, a cartographer from Luca, as he drew dragons across vast undiscovered lands. Science had yet to discover that Matilda, his caged pet canary was the descendant of those prehistoric monsters. Paolo’s canary hated the name Matilda.
Diego tried not to look at himself in the mirror as he vigorously shook the can of shaving foam. There wasn’t much left but he was determined to make it last until he and Maria could head to Costco next weekend for their Christmas shopping. Was it F. Scott Fitzgerald who wrote that an artist [...]
I woke this morning with yesterday’s toothache still painfully nudging me to do something. Still blinded by the morning light I reached for my cellphone and called the oral surgeon my dentist recommended several weeks ago. His secretary offered an appointment for Thursday evening. I don’t know why I didn’t tell her that an earlier [...]
I enjoy the guilty pleasure of a late breakfast. I defend myself by citing to the old refrain of Noel Coward that “only mad dogs and Englishmen go out in the midday sun.” You can then well imagine my surprise this morning in finding none other than an Englishman seated in the breakfast room. “King [...]
It is the end of the rainy season and in the evenings there is usually a downpour for an hour or two. So I sauntered around the theatre district, keeping a vigilant eye open for a restaurant or café where I could hang out while the rains passed. I stopped at a place called Three [...]
Getting to sleep is sometimes like a negotiation, like a car you really want to buy but can’t afford. So you haggle, take out the stereo, a lighter engine will do, and then, before you know it, you are hurtling along the highway in a car that is so bareboned and dangerous you don’t want [...]
The winner of the Colin Powell Hardy Herb 2005 Championship is French Tarragon (Artemesia drancunculis). Thyme Golden Yellow (Thymus x citriodorus ‘Aureus’) finished a distant second. The championship is an annual competition between various herbs located in my herb garden. To claim victory the contestant herbs must survive the winter and summer unassisted. The champion [...]
Archives
- June 2011
- April 2011
- March 2011
- December 2010
- November 2010
- August 2010
- July 2010
- June 2010
- March 2010
- February 2010
- December 2009
- November 2009
- August 2009
- May 2009
- March 2009
- February 2009
- January 2009
- December 2008
- November 2008
- October 2008
- September 2008
- August 2008
- June 2008
- May 2008
- April 2008
- March 2008
- February 2008
- December 2007
- September 2007
- June 2007
- April 2007
- March 2007
- February 2007
- December 2006
- September 2006
- August 2006
- March 2006
- January 2006
- October 2005
- September 2005
