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Recent Posts
- 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
- An Impromptu Health Seminar
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Category Archives: Dispatches
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
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
What Handel’s Messiah Means To Me
In December 2002 I went to the Kennedy Center in Washington D.C. for a performance of Handel’s Messiah. It was a change from our annual tradition of going to the Folger Shakespeare Library for the Folger Consort’s Christmas concert, always … Continue reading
A Good Guy With A Narwhal Tusk
According to Wayne LaPierre of the National Rifle Association “the only way to stop a bad guy with a gun is with a good guy with a gun.” But in London on November 29th a bad guy with a knife … Continue reading
Can You Say Poulsbo?
How would you pronounce the name of Poulsbo, a tiny town on the Kitsap Peninsula in Washington State? This is a trick question, because unless you live there or you know someone who does, you are certain to get it … Continue reading
Ghent – A Harmony of Old and New
One summer afternoon in 2005 my husband and I strolled along the Graslei, the east bank of the river Leie in the historic heart of Ghent. To our right were the old medieval warehouse buildings with their distinctive stepped gables. … Continue reading
An Impromptu Health Seminar
One recent morning I attended a health seminar. In the waiting room of a car service center in Gaithersburg. It was an impromptu kind of thing. Certainly not what I expected when I checked my car in for its 40,000 … Continue reading →