Advertisements In which I say vote, yes For all my talk of immigration and expatriation, I couldn’t have a more opportune moment to speak to an urgent matter in my home country: Please, please, please, please, vote. Tens of millions of Americans have already cast their ballots by mail, at a dropbox, or in person.Continue reading “PSA: USA”
Category Archives: History
Mole Day!
Advertisements In which I redouble my vain effort to mark time with a chemical interlude “Chemical interlude” sounds like I mean drugs. LOL. Anyway, a happy Mole Day (scientific abbreviation: mol) to all! If you thought you’d never find something non-arts/humanities-based on this blog…well, I’m a multifaceted gal, and this is a legitimate holiday. MyContinue reading “Mole Day!”
A Far-Too-Close Reading of “Your Song”
Advertisements In which I, well, never mind This week we arrive at something that has been on my mind all year: the half-century of the release of one of the most special songs in popular music. I’ll execute a smooth transition out of last week by introducing it as the song that prompted Lennon toContinue reading “A Far-Too-Close Reading of “Your Song””
80 Years
Advertisements In which I renew my vows I fell in love with John Lennon a few months after turning thirteen. This might not sound like much to people who grew up in an era when everyone and their cat classified themselves by their favorite Beatle, a question that echoes through subsequent generations. But it wasContinue reading “80 Years”
The Apple of America’s Eye
Advertisements In which I look at an old legend through a new lens In an example of excellent seasonal timing, today is the historian-approved birth date of John Chapman, better known as Johnny Appleseed. Remember him? The guy who planted all those trees? Yeah, you know him. He was born in 1774 in Leominster, Massachusetts,Continue reading “The Apple of America’s Eye”
Any Tom, Dick, or Karen; Any Tom, Karen, or Dick
Advertisements In which I face the facts (i.e., the cold-hearted cynic I am inside) This title cleverly references not only a number from Cole Porter’s Kiss Me, Kate, but also the one-time husband of Karen Carpenter, Tom Burris. He serves no other purpose in this post. It came as absolute and very recent news toContinue reading “Any Tom, Dick, or Karen; Any Tom, Karen, or Dick”
Singular Sensation
Advertisements In which Broadway’s Broadwayest musical turns 45 There’s no shortage of subjects I could chase this week. The album Taylor Swift surprised us with that no one was emotionally ready for. The utter circus my expat life is becoming as I wait on important answers from oversaturated offices. The fact that I’m using myContinue reading “Singular Sensation”
Washington Irving, Berlin
Advertisements In which I ruminate on an eerie visitation and the man behind it Excuse me while I congratulate myself on that terribly clever title. A writer I love overlapping a composer I love overlapping a city I love which happens to be where I live? Oh, Cecilia, you crack-up. *pats own back* Just kidding.Continue reading “Washington Irving, Berlin”
A Birthday Salute to Paul Laurence Dunbar
Advertisements In which I mark a poet whose work has occupied my mind Allow me a moment out of my other endeavors to devote to a topic of true import. A few months or lifetimes ago, as social institutions and governments responded to the pandemic by mandating masks in public, it didn’t take long forContinue reading “A Birthday Salute to Paul Laurence Dunbar”
An Emergence/Emergency Kit
Advertisements In which I prepare a launch pad The wave of protests across the United States and beyond in pursuit of just responses to the murders of George Floyd, Breonna Taylor, Ahmaud Arbery, and a whole horrible timeline of others—protests which, in their own right, have been mostly peaceful and entirely necessary—is different from previousContinue reading “An Emergence/Emergency Kit”