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.
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Nothing could be more common than the salt and pepper on...
Roger’s year in books and reading, 2021
When it comes to books, I’ve never seriously attempted to rank a year’s reading in terms of "best of" or the like. To be...
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 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...
Louisville beer, now and then (or, my 2014 review of Kevin Gibson’s “Louisville Beer”...
Because, I really nailed this one.
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Louisville Beer, Now and Then
“Anyone who has groped among the dark beer dungeons which lie for a number...
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...
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...
“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...
“When the Doves Disappeared,” a novel by Sofi Oksanen
The novel is called When the Doves Disappeared, written by the Finnish/Estonian author Sofi Oksanen. The English translation was released in 2015. The publisher...
Times change, but Ernest Hemingway was an inspiration to this youthful traveler
Originally published as "(Ernest) Hemingway in a time of mercifully silent thunder" on April 23, 2020. A Ken Burns documentary about Hemingway is coming...
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A rainy writing morning; time again for “Venetian Vespers”
And might I add, a perfect day for letting my mind wander.
As I write, it is raining, and ponderings about Venice usually come equipped...
Diary: As for me, I’m sorry you made it so damn hard, and I...
"I'm sorry that things got hard."
That's like saying "I'm sorry it rained," when neither of us have any say over the weather. "Sorry" in...
What’s done is done, and new adventures await
Just when I conclude that things can't get more surreal, along comes 2026. It has been draining, but we squeezed in an excursion to...
