The Open by Peter Kravitz This year, for its 150th anniversary, The Open Championship golf tournament (known in the U.S. as “The British Open”) will again be played at the Old Course in St. Andrew’s, Scotland, July 14–17. Seven years ago, Tom Watson, then sixty-five, played his final Open round at St. Andrew’s, and I Read more
Interwoven Book review by Jude Joseph Lovell A short way into Stella’s Carpet, a heartfelt and lovely novel by the Canadian writer (and Silver Sage contributor) Lucy E.M. Black, a primary character who has become fairly obsessed with the ancient art of carpet weaving, is shown pondering a striking Persian sample: “Its otherness intrigued him; Read more
Lessons from an Overgrown Garden by Angie Littlefield I invited into my garden the aggressors that now run amok. Long gone are the days of gentle irises and features of perennials like penstemon and sea lavender. My garden is overrun with a rougher sort. These plants are “bigger, meaner, and pushier than anything else in Read more
Five Steps to Unlock Your Inner Artist by Michael J. Orr Most of us have had that one friend who, straight out of the womb, could sketch an entire landscape so well that you felt like you could walk into it. Or, we have a friend who is just so crafty and creative that they Read more
Sea Dream Written by Stu O’Conner Distributed by CD Baby & amazon.com I once read an article that claimed the very best music for growing plants was the voice of Joan Baez; researchers claimed Baez’s golden pipes were even more beneficial than classical music for the growth capacity of our green co-inhabitants of this planet. Read more
The Cool Teacher Book Review by Jude Joseph Lovell It feels apt to title this review with that debatable oxymoron. Especially because Peter Kravitz, a retired educator from the New York Public Schools system and a contributor to this magazine, has produced a new memoir that vacillates freely between opposing poles: funny to serious; emotional Read more
Tips for Refreshing a Living Room by Lucy E.M. Black When we moved in seven years ago, the movers plunked down the furniture and things have stayed pretty much the same since that time. I’ve shifted the couch a few feet every now and then but have basically left the major rooms alone. Having renovated Read more
Persian Carpets by Lucy E.M. Black My parents had an old, threadbare Persian carpet in our living room when I was a child. I remember playing on it and tracing the intricate patterns with my fingers. There were pale golden birds floating in the borders, and glimpses of luscious colors remained in the worn wool Read more
Hadestown: An Old Song Made Brand New By Jude Joseph Lovell The singer-songwriter turned composer Anaïs Mitchell has not been satisfied with a conventional singer’s career path. Since the early 2000’s she has been toiling on a “folk opera” called Hadestown, based on the Greek myths of Orpheus and Eurydice, and Hades and Persephone. First Read more
Hilary Mantel’s Triple Play Book commentary by Jude Joseph Lovell I decided early while reading The Mirror & The Light, the third volume of Hilary Mantel’s challenging but remarkable trilogy of historical novels about Thomas Cromwell, a statesman and minister to the English king Henry VIII, that I could not write a conventional review. I Read more
