The Reuben’s Colorful History This Jewish deli staple should be on everyone’s home menu by Chris Kaiser I have a friend who always orders a Reuben sandwich whenever we go out for lunch, but he will never cook one at home. He says it’s too difficult. I disagree with him, and I encourage everyone to Read more
The Wine “Experts” Are Wrong About This by Michael J. Orr I admit to being a bit of a wine snob. I’m a sommelier for crying out loud, and nobody gets certified as a sommelier without having a bit of alcoholic narcissism in them. But I am also a bit of a contrarian within those Read more
Hymns and Myths, Homeric and Modern By Stu O’Connor Rough and Rowdy Ways by Bob Dylan Columbia Records. Release date: 19 June 2020 * * * * * (out of five) One can never count Bob Dylan out—ever. I went to see him at The Tower Theater in Upper Darby in the fall of 2017, Read more
Up from the Ashes Book review by Jude Joseph Lovell “Armageddon ain’t supposed to be fun,” an elderly man reminds a small-town politician (and the reader) in Burn Scar, a new novel from T. J. Tao. I have to wonder, What about extremely tragic natural disasters? Because there were times as I read this fiction Read more
Garden Memories By Lucy E.M. Black We are now living in our third house, having moved from our starter home to a sprawling farmhouse and now finally to this one, a downsized version closer to services, where we intend to grow older and creakier. In each of these houses, I planted a garden. I say Read more
“The Book Club” and Me by Donna Scrafano Since I have been sheltering-in, so I’ve been watching a lot of movies. Mostly fun movies. Some movies I’ve seen before. One particular movie I’ve chosen to watch, and I’ve seen several times, is “The Book Club.” I had forgotten just how funny and yet truthful each Read more
Bottles & Books by Christina Fain One day during our state’s stay-at-home order, I realized I had been on social media all day. Not just a little bit but all day. My brain became filled with angst, negativity, and downright sadness. Reading headlines and trolling comments made anxiety flare and let fear set in. I Read more
Plagues and Problems: Daniel Defoe’s Journal of the Plague Years by Stu O’Connor Memento Mori (“Remember, you must die”). The awareness of inevitable death has been a concern of philosophers since at least Socrates. And not just death’s inevitability but its potential suddenness. As Marcus Aurelius wrote in his Meditations: “You could leave life right now.” Read more
How COVID-19 Changes Our Perspective by Stan Corey April 22, 2020 was the fiftieth anniversary of Earth Day, and it offered a very different scenario than any prior Earth Day since the original one was held in 1970. There have been a number of stories about how, in the very short period of time since Read more
Eye In the Sky Book Review by Jude Joseph Lovell I’ve been running into the English crime novelist Kate Atkinson’s books for years. More than one reader has recommended her work to me, and I’ve seen her titles appear many times on various “Best of the Year” lists for fiction. While this would normally pique my Read more
