January

It was a rimy morning, and very damp. I had seen the damp lying on the outside of my little window, as if some goblin had been crying there all night, and using the window for a pocket-handkerchief.-Charles Dickens (Great Expectations)As I sit here writing this in the Greek's and my bedroom listening to the…

Pittsburgh and Pi(e) Day

A little more than a month ago, on Pi(e) Day, my baby brother got married on the South Side in Pittsburgh in a gorgeous, renovated train station (in southwestern Pennsylvania, this has become a real industry; although I'm certainly not complaining, I will say that I suppose this is one way of dealing with America's…

Whirlwind Travels, Part I: New York

New York is nothing like Paris; it is nothing like London; and it is not Spokane multiplied by sixty, or Detroit multiplied by four. It is by all odds the loftiest of cities…Manhattan has been compelled to expand skyward because of the absence of any other direction in which to grow. This, more than any…

A Windy City Wedding

Loving Chicago is like loving a woman with a broken nose.- Nelson AlgrenHave you ever received a text message from your friend's fiance (whom you've never met) asking you to help him with a little surprise for the bride-to-be? My guess is probably not; however, let me assure you that these things do in fact…