No Dirt in Dreams
At the Art Institute of Chicago, the special exhibit “America After the Fall: Painting in the 1930s” is worth a visit. It offers nostalgic visions, realistic yet often overly optimistic, and fanciful renderings of a . . .
Go with the flow in Downtown Chicago
I am exploring downtown Chicago – the prettiest, wealthiest, most touristy part of the city. The part where visitors snap photos and report to folks back home that the city is wonderful. And why not? Vacations are for fantasy – for living, for a...
A Trip Back to the Heart of Louisiana
A swath of longleaf pine, live oak and cape myrtle endures the ages in low-rolling hills across Southeast Louisiana just north of Interstate 10. This rural place of small farms, sleepy villages and two-lane roads feels nearly . . .
Civil War Battle of Port Hudson
Yesterday, just south of St. Francisville, La., a highway sign pointing to Port Hudson State Historic Site caught our eyes and we doubled back to have a look, having learned long ago to trust serendipity . . .
Notes from St. Charles Tavern
If you get to St. Charles Tavern before daybreak, the overnight people are still here. Service workers who showed up after 2 a.m. and hospital staff in scrubs, who just ended their shifts, occupy noisy tables in the middle of the room. Older...
On Motherhood
Yesterday, in my car, I watched two women cross an intersection in front of me on foot. They looked to be a mother and daughter. Mom was perhaps 40 and the daughter about 20. Daughter said nothing, strode . . .
Christmas Eve in the Hills of Hannibal
I grew up in the Midwest, with real winters. I don’t miss shoveling snow, trudging mini-mountains of sludge or wading slush. Snow plows scraped up and down our street and past our driveway, installing hard-packed barricades of misery and...
Little Things of Christmas
Aunt Martha and Uncle Charles in Tallahassee have not felt up to the task of stringing lights on their fresh Christmas tree, which you can smell throughout the small house. Since Lisa and I are visiting them we are happily doing that holiday...
The Mansplainer Attacks Before Dawn
I’m sitting in St. Charles Tavern, pre-dawn, drinking coffee and listening to a mustachioed, 50ish guy dressed in a plaid shirt and a ball cap, deep of throat and shallow of content, loudly and with great passion explain to a young couple the...
HURRICANE: The Great Home Depot Saga
5:30 p.m. Monday. Can’t get generator to run. Been working on it for two days. Hurricane coming tomorrow night. 6 p.m. Monday. We make last minute run to Home Depot. Will they still be open? Will they have any generators . . .
A Spicy Easter Tradition
In the small, Southeast Louisiana town of Slidell, located on Lake Pontchartrain about 20 miles northeast of New Orleans, I discovered an Easter tradition unique to this region , , ,
On Mardi Gras Beads and Love
I like to say Mardi Gras is about love. It sounds trite but what else could it be? It’s history, yes. It’s tradition. It’s pageantry, nonsense, blasphemy and religion. It’s food, drink, art, music, dance, light, color, and, in spite of the police...