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- Across America by Greyhound Bus – 1970
- Reading Bruegel
- The Tangled Tale of the Mixed-Up Mice
- Fons Americanus – Art For This Time
- On My Bookshelf – The Singing Game
- Hidden Lives in Victorian England
- Update: The Return of the Knife
- The Prostitutes’ Graveyard
- London in the Plague Year
- On Memory and Churchill’s Funeral
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Author Archives: dispatchesfromtheformernewworld
Across America by Greyhound Bus – 1970
Fifty years ago this month I arrived in New York on a student charter flight and traveled to San Francisco on a Greyhound bus. This is my account of the trip, first published in The Dabbler in June 2012. The … Continue reading
Reading Bruegel
I bought this book on impulse because I will read anything about Bruegel. Perhaps it is my Flemish heritage that draws me to his work. I imagine my ancestors among the peasant crowds in his village scenes. It was only … Continue reading
The Tangled Tale of the Mixed-Up Mice
It was a dark and peaceful night. An owl hooted. A fox skulked through the yard. The mice crouched silently, in sleep mode. Some time before dawn, on orders from the mothership, the mice exchanged their souls. My mouse was … Continue reading
Fons Americanus – Art For This Time
The events of the past several weeks, the death of George Floyd under the knee of a police officer, the protests that swept the nation and the world, and President Trump’s attempt at brutal “domination” brought to mind an art … Continue reading
On My Bookshelf – The Singing Game
Perhaps it was the restlessness induced by quarantine that had me prowling my own bookshelves in search of diversion. I needed a break from the world of Thomas Cromwell in Hilary Mantel’s The Mirror and the Light. (I know it … Continue reading
Hidden Lives in Victorian England
In my final blog for MCPL (my former professional home Montgomery County Public Libraries, Maryland) I discuss The Five, a book about the victims of Jack the Ripper, a wonderful piece of social history that restores dignity to the five women. Other titles … Continue reading
Update: The Return of the Knife
This is an update to the tale told in my earlier post London in the Plague Year wherein my husband Mel’s pocket knife was confiscated at The Shard. The knife was destined to be turned over to the Metropolitan Police … Continue reading
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London in the Plague Year
One day last week we stood in London’s Bunhill Fields burial ground before the grave of Daniel Defoe. Of course his Journal of the Plague Year was the book that came to mind. Based on eyewitness reports in his uncle’s … Continue reading
On Memory and Churchill’s Funeral
When I was very small my Uncle Lievin saved me from a bear. I was in bed at my grandmother’s house in Belgium when he came running up the stairs chased by a bear. Don’t worry, he assured me, I’ll … Continue reading
