Guardian of Our Past
My mother is the chief curator of our family’s museum. She carefully monitors our past. Fortunately.
The Love Song of T. S. Eliot and Emily Hale
On a rainy morning in early January, the two of us descend into the catacombs beneath Princeton’s Firestone Library to read the most famous sealed library archive in the world.
The Eye of the Hurricane
In Times Square, in the middle of Manhattan, I make my way into the huge Marriott Marquis hotel. I step into a glass elevator, which hangs on the outside of a column in the huge atrium. While we ascend, I get views of different worlds.
The Fall of Icarus
You don’t expect to find insights into our troubled times from the Flemish Old Masters. But on a recent trip to Brussels I found myself wandering into the Royal Museum of Fine Arts.
When Only One Recipe Matters
There are people who love to cook. They are mysteries to me. But my ricotta pudding is my pride.
Rebooting My Neighbor
He had had a deadly variant of leukemia and maybe a few months left to live. Now there is no trace of the disease
Cracking Social Codes
The Dutch have adopted a do-it-your-way attitude toward social rules. American social life, in contrast, operates by rules that are often unspoken but rigorously observed.
When Germs Travel
A century ago around a thousand children died of measles every year in the Netherlands alone. Half a million children, mostly young, died worldwide. I am grateful that our children were born in another time.
Unwrapping the Keto Diet
This keto diet goes against everything I have learned about healthy eating.
Robbinsville’s Two Temples
There are two temples in Robbinsville: one for spiritual needs, the other for material desires.