From sobbing to self-made
I just moved into a gorgeous apartment overlooking London's Hyde Park. I am flooded with light, when London allows that, [...]
Tricks of the trade
You know by now how much I love cooking and recipe-creating. It's part of my lifeblood. But the other day [...]
Too deep
When Alfredo Rampi was trapped in a well near Rome in June 1981, Italy came to a halt.
Life before lenses
It took me the first twelve years of my life to discover glasses, or at least their full utility. Not [...]
Of knives and fire
Some memories seem not to belong to one’s own life, but rather as details from a youth spent on some [...]
No final word on masks
It is remarkable, and not at all cheering, that a year into the COVID-19 pandemic there is no definitive word [...]
Back to the Cold War
I started out with World War I. The YouTube lectures and books I consumed while working on a family genealogical [...]
Oh, Wiki, spare us
My 10-year-old daughter Rebecca has become a devotee of Wikipedia. She's renamed her tablet Wiki and spends hours scrolling through [...]
Bound and determined
When I got pregnant nearly four years ago, I was at a crossroads in my life. I’d just been accepted [...]
Step aside, Victor Hugo
I once envied the lucky critics able to reflect at length on the works of Proust or Dickens with near-casual [...]
Make room for Yuri
Our Solar System was the only one with a planet named Yuri. This important piece of information emerged from Mrs. [...]