As Winter gives way to Spring, I find myself pondering life’s various transitions. Never more so than this week, while in Mammoth with my teenagers for our annual pilgrimage to the snow. For the first time, my 13-year-old daughter left our rented condo on her own to meet a friend on the mountain. Happy, confident, […]
GG sends me a beautiful leather-bound book, The Canterbury Tales, by Geoffrey Chaucer (1343-1400), The William Caxton Facsimile Edition; of which only 500 were published by Cambridge University Press in 1973. She has #248, signed by Cambridge University scholar Walter Hamilton of Magdelene College. On the last page of this huge volume is a wonderful […]
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Black History Month is dedicated to African Americans and the Arts. In Week Two we give it up for the young Obsidian Scholars at the Gateway Educational Services Goleta, who presented their original poetry in fond memory of Santa Barbara poet laureate, activist, and local institution Sojourner Kincaid Rolle. The event was held at Soul […]
The kabocha squash is one of my favorite squashes, creamy, nutty, and sweet – this squash has an edible thick green skin, a low glycemic index, is super low calorie, and contains a plethora of vitamins and minerals. I found some gorgeous ones at the market this week at Jimenez Family Farms. The kabocha squash […]
LONDON (1982) – Richard Slater, anecdotist, adventurer, and future server at San Ysidro Ranch’s legendary Stonehouse Restaurant, hoisted his backpack in a gesture of fortitude. A wall of glass gave onto the gigantic, riveted machine that would presently loft him out of Heathrow Airport and deposit him at JFK in New York City. Slater stared […]
“I hadn’t imagined myself working in the nonprofit sector when I started college,” says Joan Curran. Joan was a freshman at the University of San Francisco when she began her federal work study and – as she would later realize – began her career. Joan joined the team at a San Francisco–based nonprofit called Career […]
LM sends me a photo of a terra cotta bust (at 30” tall) of a gorgeous young French female of the late 18th century. Her beauty is classic even today: flowing hair, effortless smile, full cheeks, upturned almond shaped eyes, a heart-shaped face. Madame Élisabeth Louise Vigée Le Brun (1755-1842) was not only one of […]
When my daughter was in kindergarten, she came home distraught because her teacher wanted all the students to share what they wanted to be when they grew up. She looked up at me with tear-filled eyes and said, “Mommy, I am only 5. How am I supposed to know that?” Exactly. At 5, or 55 […]
In 1960, the MET held its famous museum show of industrial design called “Ideas for Living.” A designer’s showcase of streamlined ways to simplify life, repercussions are still being felt today in post-post modernism. TT owns a stove and range combination that was built into a Santa Barbara condominium in 1962 and has stayed in […]
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Garlic, part of the Allium family and closely related to the onion, chive, leek, shallot, and scallion, has been used in daily cooking in all parts of the world throughout history. It has not only been used as a flavor enhancer, but also to prevent and treat a variety of diseases and conditions. I know […]
Who doesn’t love a full circle moment? Today we have yet another wonderful featuree who is an alumna of the Mission Scholars program. Inspired by her time in the program and her upbringing here in Santa Barbara, Kristine Carrillo is a current senior at Brown University where she studies International and Public Affairs and Education […]
“Mr. Watson, come here, I need you!” So said Alexander Graham Bell to his assistant in 1876, and those were the first words understood – and heard – through a telephone wire. Bell had spilled battery acid on his pant leg, and he needed help before the acid burned through the fabric. Thus began the […]
In the 1990s, a wonder drug took the step aerobic, Atkins-dieting, slip dress wearing population by storm. Fenfluramine/phentermine, the pharmaceutical treatment known as Fen-Phen, appeared to be the panacea that cellulite battlers worldwide had been searching for. Effects included loss of appetite, feel good hormones surging and fat melting off at a staggering rate. It […]
I have clever readers who connect material objects with present day symbolism: FR asks, “What do I really see when I see a mask on a face?” Apropos to our past three years, she was compelled to rethink her huge three-foot Venetian papier-mâché mask of the face of Michelangelo’s David. She mentions seeing her attractively […]
