Tag: History
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The Atlas of Art Crime
“On New Year’s Day in 1984, three men dressed in overalls hung a ‘Work in Progress’ sign at the front of St. John’s Co-Cathedral in Valletta to prevent anyone from entering the church. Inside the cathedral is a breathtaking array of ornate decorative elements: intricate carvings, stunning paintings, and a whole lot of bling. Two…
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The Gossip Columnist’s Daughter
Jed Rosenthal is living a desultory life in a garden apartment with his cat, both having been exiled from the family home they shared with Jed’ s partner and their daughter who he can see only at approved times. Despite a job as a professor of writing at Loyola University in Chicago and receiving good…
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Join me at the Classic Restaurants of Michiana Book Signing Wednesday, June 11th
The members of the Sacred Heart of Mary Catholic Church Book/Movie Discussion Group have invited me to speak this Wednesday, June 11th at 6:30 p.m. If you have the time and are interested in the history of restaurants in Michiana, please come. The church is lovely, located in a beautiful country setting at 51841 Leach…
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Gothictown
In 1832, at the height of the Georgia gold rush, gold had been discovered on the banks of the Etowah River on land owned by Alfred Minette. As men flocked to work in the mine and others to supply their needs, a small town arose and Minette named it after his firstborn, a beautiful but…
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Disturbing the Bones
It’s an archaeological dig so finding human remains shouldn’t be a surprise, but Dr. Molly Moore immediately recognizes that the skeleton they’ve unearthed is much more recent than what you’d find on a site dating back 12,000 years. Indeed, the body is that of a young Black reporter who disappeared just decades ago when covering…
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Author Erik Larson offers compelling acount of the start of the Civil War
Only a master storyteller like Erik Larson could turn the five tumultuous months leading up to the Civil War into “The Demon of Unrest: A Saga of Hubris, Heartbreak, and Heroes at the Dawn of the Civil War” (Crown), a compelling, page-turning read, chock full of anecdotes, psychological profiles and obscure but compelling tidbits of…
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Mexico Kaleidoscope: Myths, Mysteries and Mystique
Oenophiles might be surprised to learn that the oldest winery anywhere in the Americas is Casa Madero, formally established as long ago as 1597, located in Parras de la Fuente, a small town in the northern state of Coahuila. “In 1549 the Spanish priests and soldiers who explored this region discovered native vines growing wild…
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Three Charming Villages on the shores of Lake Chapala
Born in the United Kingdom, Tony Burton, a Cambridge University-educated geographer with a teaching certificate from University of London, first traveled to Mexico after spending three years as a VSO [Voluntary Service Overseas] volunteer teaching geography, and writing a local geography text, on the Caribbean island of St. Kitts. From there his travels took him…
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If Walls Could Talk: Lake Chapala’s historic buildings and their former occupants
Now one of the most popular retirement area for Americans and Canadians, the Lake Chapala Region, nestled in a valley almost a mile high in Mexico’s Volcanic Axis, has long been a draw for ex-pats and vacationers, lured by its almost perfect climate and beauty. In his book If Walls Could Talk: Chapala’s historic buildings…
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Santa Museum Hosting Story Teller and “Santa’s Daughter” by Mrs. Pat Koch Book Signing
On Saturday, December 3, 2022, at 1:00 pm Central time, guests are invited to gather in the historic Santa Claus Church where the spell-binding Susan Fowler will return to the site to give us her entertaining and interactive rendition of the classic tale Twas the Night Before Christmas. A Merry Memory Sketch souvenir illustration of…
Shelf Life 