Caution: this is a long post that's mostly summary. Not really a review! Gish Jen,  Thank You, Mr. Nixon . Published February...

Valentine Chocolate Memories Heart-Shaped Chocolate Box, 1950s Valentine's Day makes me think of a lot of things. Above all: chocolate. ...

Why are food prices rising so rapidly? I’ve been trying to understand how the economy works (a hopeless effort). Every time I read the...

Agatha Christie published the mystery novel later called  Ten Little Indians in 1939, under an even more offensive title. For obvious reaso...

Yesterday, I wrote about several food issues, including prices and the abusive practices of chicken farms. This morning, two news items prov...

Orange juice, which mainly comes from Florida oranges, will be increasing in price – again – because of a huge drop in the Florida orange cr...

Why it's called a Bing Cherry  Cherries at the Ann Arbor Farmers Market. ...

The year of the tiger started this week, and here’s a lovely tiger headrest from the Chinese collection at the University of Michigan Museum...

My cart at Trader Joe's: note the delicious jelly candy along with healthy lettuce and tofu. Monday of this week the weather reports thr...

"The Muscoot was named after the reservoir it was adjacent to, one of many reservoirs in upstate New York that supply the drinking wate...

A terrible snow storm has been menacing us since last night, but this morning at first light, it was only raining. By early afternoon: a sli...

  Two Kindle books that I've been reading:  Dress Codes: How the Laws of Fashion Made History by Richard Thompson Ford, published 2022....

A can of cherry tomatoes. In my kitchen (and in my overflow shelves in the basement) I have been keeping a lot of canned goods.  The new wav...