Every year, when fall rolls around, I get stars in my eyes, thinking about how wonderful it would be to make apple and quince jelly, applesauce, quince paste (or membrillo, as it is often called) and all kinds of fall-inspired desserts, from apple squares to salted caramel apple pie. Then, when the reality sets in,…
A more apt title for this post might have been a step backward, but somehow that just didn't seem right. You see, after last week's minor pity party (colds and dissertations don't mix well), I decided that humanity had to be restored. So I cut back on my library hours and got down to the…
You could say that January came in like a lamb and is going out like a lion. The beginning of the new year is always full of promise, but goals and resolutions don't always progress as swimmingly as one might hope. Put another way, I suppose what I'm continually surprised to discover is that it's…
At moments of restriction, fantasy alone can lift people above dreariness. Fantasy is a flower that does not flourish on passivity. -Elsa Schiaparelli ("Impossible Conversations") It's strange to think that only a few weeks ago I was in New York City. The weekend there--the first full weekend in July--passed by in a blur of activity;…
In Saunders' opinion, the novel had reached its apogee with the marriage plot and had never recovered from its disappearance. In the days when success in life had depended on marriage, and marriage had depended on money, novelists had had a subject to write about. The great epics sang of war, the novel of marriage.…
But there is great dignity in allowing oneself to keep clear about what is good, and it is what I think of when I hear the term "good taste." Whether things were ever simpler than they are now, or better if they were, we can't know. We do know that people have always found ways…
I thought famous people were proud, unapproachable, that they despised the crowd, and by their fame and the glory of their name, as it were, revenged themselves on the vulgar herd for putting rank and wealth above everything. But here they cry and fish, play cards, laugh and get cross like everyone else!-Anton Chekhov (The…
Dining with Dostoevsky 