When young Pliny Moody dug an odd-looking rock out of his family’s field in 1802, he wasn’t sure what to make of it at first. It was pockmarked with three-toed impressions that looked like the scratchings of some ancient bird. The most likely answer, he reasoned, was that they must be the footprints of “Noah’s […]
massachusetts
The word eccentric means, literally, “off-center.” These two books examine New Englanders who, like all true eccentrics, never thought of themselves as strange; it’s everyone else who’s off-center. Fruitlands: The Alcott Family and Their Search for Utopia, by Richard Francis, is the story of a motley band of 19th-century idealists–deeply influenced by Transcendentalists such as […]
Three years ago, on March 6, 2008, I called your attention to Boston Phoenix art critic Greg Cook’s art blog, New England Journal of Aesthetic Research. Two years ago, February 4, 2009, I reported on the Boston Art Awards Cook had created in order to recognize local art and artists. On December 22, 2009, I […]
Magazine
Buried in Snow
There is so much snow here now that Mayday, my 20-pound schnauzer, can walk on the crust of the snow over to my living room window and look inside. She puts her paw on the window, a window that most of the year is way out of her reach. I get the feeling she is […]
Gardens
Spring Blossoms | Photographs
Spring is coming, and you can celebrate this season by following the trail of blossoms in this slide show by photographer Matt Kalinowski. You can view more of Matt’s work at: www.mattkalinowski.com
Magazine
Christa McAuliffe’s Messenger
After the shuttle Challenger exploded 73 seconds into flight on January 28, 1986, Christa McAuliffe’s mother, Grace Corrigan, vowed to keep her mission alive.
Massachusetts
Women of Pop Art
The Pop Artists of the 1960s used the materials and imagery of popular culture (advertising, comic books, consumer products, etc) in the service of a fine art that at once reflected and commented upon 20th century materialism. Most of the famous Pop Artists were men – Andy Warhol, Roy Lichtenstein, Claes Oldenburg, Robert Indiana, James […]
If you ask someone for the time these days, you’ll likely find that instead of checking his wrist, he reaches into a pocket and flips open his cell phone. The gesture seems thoroughly modern, but it’s actually nostalgic. Because more than 100 years ago, before the wristwatch was ever invented, time and its keeper were […]
Edie Vonnegut and her husband, John Squibb, combined art, practicality, and frugality to make the Cape Cod barn of her childhood into their own home.
Magazine
The Restorer
The water still calls to him. Nearly 40 years living in Down East Maine hasn’t changed that for Jon Wilson. He’s not on the ocean as much as he’d like–his work keeps him more tethered to the land than it used to, he’ll say–but the longtime sailor still gets out there when he can. He’s […]
Soups, Stews & Chowders
Portuguese Kale Soup Recipe | Best Cook Ruth O’Donnell
This recipe for Portuguese kale soup—also called Portuguese penicillin—is a crowd favorite that has nourished family and friends for generations.
They begin their chilly journey as year-old boy shrimp, trekking from inshore waters out into the cold Atlantic. There they spend a couple of years at sea; then, after spawning, they flip a biological switch and become girl shrimp. They mature for a year and then, carrying their fertilized eggs, begin their fall migration back […]