When Capricorn equals Naples
What often struck me when I lived in Italy was the way people identified themselves as from Tuscany, the Veneto [...]
One man’s “socialism”
My childhood home was a hotbed of the conservative movement. Free-market economist Milton Friedman, who presided over conservative economics from [...]
My father, tis of thee
I made an interesting discovery a few weeks ago while searching for photos of my father to share on Facebook [...]
The roots of the matter
Uno tira l’altro, or “One pulls another.” While this Italian expression may sound like an Iron Curtain slogan —“One pulls [...]
Of stove and screen
Working at my desk the other day, I felt the house cool as dusk fell. But since it's officially spring [...]
Twice as vice
Not a day goes by that I don't notice an example of an American trend I wasn't aware of during [...]
Thursday night, the University Club
For columnist Madeleine Johnson, thinking back to long ago Midwestern evenings means card games and music, Lottie and Mildred presiding.
Fallacies on immigration
Whenever I used to tell people that I lived in Italy, the response was almost inevitable. "Oh, that's always been [...]
What you can and cannot see
The highlight of my 2018 was a trip to France to commemorate the centenary of the World War I Armistice, [...]
The greening of catalog culture
When columnist Madeleine Johnson was young, one Christmas catalog fit all. Not so in 21st-century America, a nation of tribes.
Going “home” again
More than a year ago, I moved to rural New Hampshire from Milan, where I had lived for 30 years. [...]