Menu Items: “Tastes of Paradise: A Social History of Spices, Stimulants and Intoxicants”
Originally published at the Food & Dining Magazine web site on 13 September 2020.
---
Nothing could be more common than the salt and pepper on...
Take me, I’m existentially yours (or, crisis—what crisis?)
This essay appeared as an "On the Avenues" column on January 1, 2019. For those reading from afar, be aware that in metro Louisville,...
My year in books and reading, 2024
As usual, I’m unsure about conclusions from my year in reading. There is no advance plan apart from challenging myself (cupcakes are fine here...
Louisville beer, now and then (or, my 2014 review of Kevin Gibson’s “Louisville Beer”...
Because, I really nailed this one.
---
Louisville Beer, Now and Then
“Anyone who has groped among the dark beer dungeons which lie for a number...
The books I read in 2020
From December 22, 2020 at NA Confidential. Some articles from late in the year were not archived here, and this is one of them.
The...
Books: “Bowling for Communism” in Leipzig
Leipzig was among the East German cities to be visited in 1989 during my August working holiday in the GDR, but the group excursion...
Books: “The Cold War from the Margins” in Bulgaria
In May I read a good book about a little-known aspect of the Cold War.
The Cold War from the Margins: A Small Socialist State...
“Trieste,” a novel by Daša Drndić
It can be daunting, perhaps even crippling, to consider the immensity of what remains unknown about the wider world. What we as individuals know...
Books and politics, with Roberto Bolaño and “The Savage Detectives”
In the year 2015 I ran for mayor of New Albany. During a candidate Q & A, I became the first mayoral candidate in...
I’m set to write a book about beer, or so this impending contract suggests
(It should be noted that as of October 24, 2025, I have withdrawn from this contract. Things don't always work out like we hope,...
Latest article
The book that wasn’t, why it won’t be, and really, that’s all right with...
Today’s bullet point is borrowed from Groucho Marx in Animal Crackers (1930): “Hello, I must be going.”
Regular readers will recall that earlier this year, I...
R.I.P. Barry Sears, a friend since kindergarten who changed my life over lunch
(There is a story behind the featured photograph, and it comes at the end, so please read or scroll.)
My lifelong friend Barry Sears died...
Diary: The story of the Sladek (brewer/maltster) stone at Fairview Cemetery
We bought our house in downtown New Albany in 2003, and by the following spring casual neighborhood walks had become a regular weekend feature...
