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Category Archives: Dispatches
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
A Mansion Fit for a King
There is always something new to discover in places you think you know well. I’ve been traveling to Crisfield in Somerset County on Maryland’s Eastern Shore for decades. My husband’s family were Chesapeake watermen and farmers for generations, going back … Continue reading
Tales of the Asylum
One day in the early 1960’s I came home to find that while I was in school my grandmother had been whisked away in an ambulance and taken to a mental hospital. The news followed several unsettling days, days of … Continue reading
Leaving Ireland
They left to escape the famine, poverty, an oppressive colonial government, then the violence of rebellion and civil war. They left to find work, to send money home to their families, to find opportunities in the big industrial cities far … Continue reading
Trump’s 12 Days of Christmas
On the first day of Christmas Trump found beneath his tree A Democratic House majority On the second day of Christmas Trump found beneath his tree Two ex-Chiefs of Staff and A Democratic House majority On … Continue reading
Water Water Everywhere
You could be forgiven for mistaking the network evening news for the Weather Channel these days. Night after night scenes of devastating flooding somewhere and everywhere. Hurricanes, cyclones, torrential rainfall, storm surges, rivers overflowing their banks, whole towns inundated, homes … Continue reading →