The Long Island Express, otherwise known as the Hurricane of 1938, was a category 3 hurricane when it made landfall. It swept away communities, flooded New York City, and cost between 600 and 800 lives. An article on sewage contamination … Continue reading
Category Archives: Food
Halloween’s passed us by, but here’s a tale of horror from the late eighteenth century: a visit to the drugstore. This advertisement appeared in The Maryland Journal on August 11, 1786. Particularly note the “Calomel, and all other well-prepared Mercuries” … Continue reading
Marylanders recognize this scene. The wet smear of spice-reddened shattered carapace across moist newspaper says it all: it must be the end of a crab feast. This was the end of a half-bushel of medium blue crabs back in August. … Continue reading
Fall vegetables: the bounty at the market threatens to overwhelm the Manhattan apartment suggestion of a kitchen. Mine’s 24 sq. feet. Stick a bunch of kale in it, and there’s no hope of doing anything else until that kale has … Continue reading
Beer. Mmmm. Recently, my friend Ms McC and I travelled to Maryland for a eighteenth century event at Fort Frederick State Park (see my posts on nearby Hagerstown and the CCC Museum at Fort Fred). Being like-minded in our love … Continue reading
Last weekend, I pushed it. I bought two tomatoes at the local farmer’s market on 67th street. New York state tomatoes are okay (they aren’t tidewater Maryland tomatoes, alas), and I thought I’d have just one more shot at a … Continue reading
I can travel a fair amount for my job. Anyone who travels on business has eaten alone in a restaurant. Some cringe. I don’t. Evening finds me in a restaurant, not eating grocery store finds in my hotel room. That … Continue reading
It wasn’t supposed to be like that. Brilliant sun and a cloudless sky marked my days in Seattle. Like San Francisco and Vancouver (see my post here), Seattle has that feeling that the gold rush just went bust. Yes, it … Continue reading
We have some pigeons who decided to make a nest on our window sill. I found them too late – when I knocked on the window to get the hen to move on, I realized she’d already laid her eggs. … Continue reading
My memories of my one visit to Florida in 1998 weren’t warming me up (ha) for my recent trip. The weather was like an electric blanket I couldn’t get away from. One of my host’s friends was attacked by fire … Continue reading