A Closer Look - Château de Bussy-Rabutin - de Sévigné - Essay

"...a vain and flattery-obsessed woman who sucked up outrageously to the King..."

“Emperors' Treasures: Chinese Art from the National Palace Museum, Taipei” Museum of Fine Arts, Houston - Essay



"...one in his entourage must have thought I needed a history lesson. “Taiwan not China!”..."

Dolin Rouge Vermouth de Chambéry - A Closer Look - Essay

"My favorite drink is a Manhattan, which when properly made, includes a fine red vermouth.  I was recently inspired to learn more about my favorite red vermouth."

Aesthetic Truth: Empress Eugénie - Franz Winterhalter Portrait Exhibition - Museum of Fine Arts, Houston - Essay

"...obstacles to marriage such as Napoleon’s many mistresses, some formidable..."

A Few Thoughts about the Hittite Lion - Essay

"I bought a small statuette of a Hittite lion in a market near the Ancient Hittite archaeological site of Hattusha, not far from the city of Bogazkale in central Turkey...."

Notes on the Urubamba River - Machu Picchu - Extraterrestrials

"My friend Maggie Marbry took this photograph of the Urubamba River from the top of the Peruvian Andes.  I learned on that trip that the Urubamba’s name in the Quechua..."

Notes on Olive Oil and Trastevere - Essay

"...You can’t go two feet in Italy without encountering the miraculous, so let me recount a miracle that happened in Trastevere..."