There have been several books in recent years about writers and drinking, so each new one needs a different twist. An effort last year by Olivia Laing, The Trip to Echo Spring: On Writers and Drinking, features the British author traveling across the United States from New York to Washington State, with a few stops between. It's a very personal ( Read more... )

I have a few weeks off from work and I wish my wife could have the same time free from her job. Winter solstice happens on December 21, this year. Some day, I'd like to travel with her to various Celtic sites around the UK and Europe, preferably around the time of a summer solstice ( Read more... )

We--my wife and I--had a good time in Berea, Kentucky, a community familiar to me only in name and reputation because of a small liberal arts college that's been there for nearly 150 years. Our hotel is right in the middle of campus, a three-story white structure built by students in 1911, and still a source of employment for many who currently ( Read more... )

Around the middle of September, I had an allergic reaction to a sulfa drug that gave me a terrible rash, a high fever and a cough. Two of those things went away soon after a mega-dose of prednisone, but the cough persisted, especially when I would talk for more than a few minutes, particularly while teaching. The nagging cough didn't go away until ( Read more... )

I need to book my round-trip flight from Pittsburgh to an airport not far from the Great Lakes Naval Base, which is halfway between Chicago and Milwaukee. In Chicago, I have a choice of two airports: O'Hare and Midway. The one time I flew into and out of Midway was nightmarish, so I'll avoid that one, if at all possible. Milwaukee has one airport, ( Read more... )

I've been reading a good bit of nonfiction in recent weeks. One book is musician David Byrne's Bicycle Diaries, exactly what the title implies: a journal kept over the course of years as Bryne rode a variety of bicycles in cities around the world and a bit in rural areas. His tone, voice, and variety of his thoughts remind me of my own: those of a ( Read more... )