I know that a good story requires build-up before a big reveal, but I’ve never had the patience for that. While everyone else is sitting through the rising action, I’m screaming “GET TO THE CLIMAX,” which doesn’t always fly in the middle of a movie theater or wedding ceremony or bris. And so, breaking all…
I’m going to tell you right now: when I visited the Alhambra, I took a lot of photos. Like, a whole lot of them.
I’ve tried to write about La Ciudad de las Artes y Ciencias (The City of Arts and Sciences) before. It’s a rather remarkable collection of buildings (an aquarium, a science center, conference halls) in the center of Valencia, Spain, architecturally fascinating and utterly unlike anything I’ve seen in my travels. I wanted very much to…
Note: I started working on this post a while ago. I delayed publishing it, because it’s about laughing in a cemetery, and the empty void where my heart should be told me that putting that up in the wake of the horrible tragedies we’ve experienced wouldn’t be appropriate. I figured I’d wait until the news…
I nearly forgot to tell you about the pilgrimage we made last summer to Stratford-upon-Avon: the home of that great Bard, of the man who wrote the sonnets and plays that shaped my awkward adolescence and escorted me to an awkward adulthood. I will confess: at first I found the little town kitschy. The endless…
Every now and then, it’s nice to be indulged. I don’t mean all the time – like my nightly requests that we have orange flavored Hostess cupcakes for dinner (“If we did that as often as you suggested it, we’d die.” – Rand). But once in a while, it’s pretty wonderful when everyone quietly…
Prior to my most recent trip to London, the only thing I knew about Tower Bridge was this: In 1967, an American named Robert McCullough bought London Bridge, dismantled it, and had it moved to the states. The rumor is that he had confused the rather drab and plain bridge he’d purchased with the more architecturally…
Have you ever spent gobs of time with someone, to the point where you think you know everything about them, but then something happens and you start to see them differently? Like, after a dozen years together, you learn that they can touch their nose with their tongue (which, you maintain, is information that you really should…
When compared to the rich history that all but assaults you when you’re in England, Peveril Castle isn’t that interesting. Built by Henry II in 1176, it was one of England’s earliest Norman fortresses. It would change hands over the years, moving in and out of royal control. By the end of the fourteenth century,…
Tales of Food, Feminism, and Fury
by Geraldine DeRuiter
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