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

Château de Bussy-Rabutin, Burgundy France

"...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

Dolin Vermouth Rouge and Mint
by Virginia Billeaud Anderson

"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

Franz X. Winterhalter, Empress Eugénie,
(Wedding Portrait,) (Copy) oil on canvas

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

A Few Thoughts about the Hittite Lion - Essay

Archaeological site of Hattusha. Lion Gate at the ruins of the Bronze
Age Citadel of the Ancient Hittites

"...I toured 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

Maggie Marbry, Photo of Urubamba River,
Top of the Peruvian Andes, 2000

"My friend Maggie Marbry took this photograph of the Urubamba River from the top of the Peruvian Andes.  On that trip I learned that the Urubamba’s name in the Quechua language is 'Willkamayu,'..."

Notes on Olive Oil and Trastevere - Essay

Street in Trastevere from civitacchia.portmobility

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