I confess to wanting to live in this idyllic world, one attainable through self-creation. The Larssons do-it-yourself, be yourself ethos guided me once I learned about it…
Tag: memories
A Visit to Chantilly
During the spring and early summer of 2021 in Paris, I made numerous excursions about which I do not write in An American in Pandemic Paris. Chantilly, birthplace of whipped cream, was one of my favorites….
Last Suppers #1
Twenty years ago, I realized that some of the social moments I recalled with the greatest clarity were the meals I shared with friends or family at our last (unexpectedly last) meeting before they died….
Waldorf Salad
Waldorf Salad (invented—where else?— at the Waldorf Astoria when it was a grand Park Avenue hotel) was one of my mother’s favorite lunches and one of those dishes that my father refused to eat. His favorite lunch was, strangely, a banana sandwich (ideally on Pepperidge Farm white), which naturally I thought was a normal kind… Continue reading Waldorf Salad
Vanishing Social Spaces
Recently, I sat in my office preparing a lecture. New slide, copy, paste, insert text. Powerpoint transformed the lives of art historians when it was introduced at colleges and universities circa 2000. It was revolutionary, life-changing, for that discipline in ways unknown to scholars in other fields. Some older art historians even retired earlier than… Continue reading Vanishing Social Spaces
An Accidental Martyr
Here’s a 21 October 2020 excerpt from my forthcoming An American in Pandemic Paris. A Coming-of-Retirement-Age Memoir, available at your favorite book-purchasing location by 25 November. “It’s strange walking to the 8 p.m. Eiffel Tower twinkle in the streetlight-lit night. Instead of studying architectural details, I now focus on shop windows and apartments. I adore… Continue reading An Accidental Martyr
Wondering About Wu
Around 10 p.m., the doorman rang to ask if he should allow a Chinese gentleman up, and a few minutes later, Professor Wu rang my tenth-floor doorbell. Professor Wu spoke little English, and I had trouble understanding why such a well-dressed (he always wore a suit and tie) Chinese bureaucrat would need to crash with a stranger…
Remembering Christo
The Arc de Triomphe Wrapped offered an inspirational aesthetic experience, a wrinkle in time, that offered a glimpse into an imaginable world of beauty, creativity, harmony, and solidarity….
The Well-Traveled $8K
Before I left for Europe in late February 2020 for what I assumed would be a six-month visit that, due to pandemic circumstances, morphed into an eighteen-month stay, I went to a Fifth Third (my bank) branch in Cleveland and asked it to wire $8,000 to my euro account in Germany. When they told me the wire fee had escalated to some amount exceeding $100, I requested cash…
Hammocks
Freed from the leaden tug of gravity that keeps me, thankfully, attached to the earth most of the time, I float and rock in my little nest, with maple leaves, blue skies, and the occasional bird occupying my field of vision…