refzillainTitle BrowsingNo time for Tolstoy? Put Elmore Leonard on your reading list.Sometimes I think that all Western literature, from Gilgamesh on down, is really about what it means to be a man. That is, Man with a…Mar 28, 2017Mar 28, 2017
refzillainTitle BrowsingWhen I was growing up in northern New England, I used to try wild apples.They could be found in the countryside and even deep in the woods, still growing in orchards abandoned 50 or 100 years before. Quite a few…Oct 4, 2016Oct 4, 2016
refzillainTitle BrowsingI still miss Laurie Colwin.Christmas, 1992. We ate a spiced beef roast that I had cured with juniper, allspice and salt for two weeks and a Country Christmas Cake, a…Sep 30, 2016Sep 30, 2016
refzillainTitle BrowsingIn 1997, the American Film Institute released a list of the 100 greatest American films.It is the greatest John Wayne movie, and the greatest Western ever, which means, necessarily, that it is the greatest movie of all time…Jul 12, 2016Jul 12, 2016
refzillainTitle Browsing“It’s a good thing she’s dead.”It was my friend Nora on the phone. Not hello, Penelope, this is Nora, how are you? Just “It’s a good thing she’s dead, or I’d kill her.”Jul 1, 2016Jul 1, 2016
refzillainTitle BrowsingThe exquisite animal drawings of Gabrielle VincentIn Les Miserables, it took Victor Hugo 1400 pages and Lord knows how many words to tell his story of cruelty, suffering, endurance, and…Jun 28, 2016Jun 28, 2016
refzillainTitle BrowsingI have never seen such a wonderful elephant.I can’t stop looking at the photograph on the cover of A Shadow Falls (2009), the second in Nick Brandt’s trilogy featuring his majestic…Jun 18, 2016Jun 18, 2016
refzillainTitle BrowsingIf you think you’re allergic to folk music, here’s the cure.Friends of Old Time Music: The Folk Arrival 1961–1965 (Smithsonian Folkways). This three-disc anthology of live recordings contains some of…Jun 16, 2016Jun 16, 2016
refzillainTitle BrowsingA book of perfume criticism? And why not?Just as music is art for the ear and painting is art for the eye, perfume is art for the nose. You and I might not be able to distinguish a…Jun 16, 2016Jun 16, 2016
refzillainTitle BrowsingStanley Kubrick’s face in the clouds and other secrets of The ShiningHave you watched The Shining? Did you notice the placement of cans of Calumet Baking Powder in the hotel pantry? The disappearing chair…Jun 16, 20165Jun 16, 20165