Balafon performance in the streets of Conakry, Guinea. ©1963 Emile Snyder Among the unique documents that have floated my way over the years was a manilla folder full of gorgeous black and white photographs my father took in the Ivory Coast, which was developed there, and some of them might have also been […]
Putting Together My Father’s Research With The Photos: West Africa 1963-64 Read More »
Wouldn't it be wonderful if we could publish our novels with such lovely marginalia? There is something so unexpectedly tender about these two snails meeting and kissing in the margin. Marginalia art has a vital life of its own — existing side by side with text but not necessarily commenting on the reader. It's the
Marginalia: Kissing Snails Read More »
This is a really gorgeous painting by Jacopo Tintoretto depicting the "Origin of the Milky Way, 1575-1580." Jupiter (Zeus) seeks to give immortality to his son, Hercules, conceived during an illicit affair with a mortal woman Alcmene. He knows that only the breast milk of a goddess can accomplish such a thing and as luck
Tintoretto and The Origin of the Milky Way Read More »
Would that I could begin a novel with such a splendid introduction as this frame story for Basile's entire collection of tales: "It is an established proverb, one of ancient coinage, that he who seeks what he shouldn't, finds what he doesn't want; and it is known that the monkey, by shoeing himself with
Basile’s Remarkable Introductions to the Tales Read More »
Sometimes, you just have to bust it out and have fun eating too much, running around too much, and yelling out with joy! We are about to sit down with our family, including four (soon to be five!) rambunctious grandchildren, and it's going to be wild. An update!! This year the family feasting with
Lets Get This Party Started!! Read More »
This is one of my favorite photo's of Eva, bundling the garlic. One can almost smell it coming through the screen. Happy birthday to the Garlic Queen-slash-birthday pig! Hope you guys are able to take time out from farming long enough to eat something decadent and delicious.
Tanuki is a wonderful creature, somewhere between a dog and a raccoon, He is much prized by the Japanese and he has wonderful magical talents, such as being able to turn himself into a tea pot and hide in a room. Other times, he is tossing around his very large scrotum, sometimes resting his meal
Favorite Trickster Read More »
Navy SEAL Michael Monsoor received the Congressional Medal of Honor for Military Valor posthumously today. I wanted to extend my deepest condolences to his family and fellow SEALS, especially those brothers-in-arms whose lives he saved while sacrificing his own. Read more about this remarkable young man, including the President's moving tribute. Fair
Michael Monsoor: Congressional Medal of Honor Read More »
I love these old photos of my parents and brother under the bright California sky in the days before my birth. My father in his Dartmouth T-shirt, even though he was now a (still French) Californian. My mother was beautiful with her long braid and her hippish blouse that barely conceal the baby bump beneath
The Days Before My Birth Read More »
