A Christmas tradition in millions of American households is to curl up in front of a television set — and ideally a fireplace filled with crackling logs — and watch an old, black-and-white movie that never fails to rekindle the warm good feelings of the holiday. The 1946 movie classic, “It’s a Wonderful Life,” put […]
Lordly Georgetown
Posted December 10th, 2010 at 1:06 pm (UTC-4)
One of America’s most festive neighborhoods this time of year is the Georgetown section of Washington, D.C. It’s a swanky place, full of well-kept homes, chi-chi shops and restaurants, private schools and academies, and historic churches and cemeteries, as well as a prestigious, 221-year-old Roman Catholic university that carries its name. The “D.C.” portion of […]
Palm Springing
Posted December 2nd, 2010 at 1:36 pm (UTC-4)
Palm Springs. Somehow I feel ritzy, elite, just writing the name. If you’ve ever seen a classic black-and-white Hollywood movie such as “Sunset Strip,” there’s almost certain to be a reference, if not a celluloid visit, to the “resort city to the stars.” This California desert town of 48,000 or so people ranks with places […]
Safely Rest
Posted November 24th, 2010 at 12:33 pm (UTC-4)
Even if you’ve not been to Washington, D.C., perhaps you’ve sized it up for possible places to visit. So you’re allowed to answer this question: What would you guess is the most popular tourist attraction in the capital city of the United States of America? If you said the Smithsonian Institution museums, such as the […]
T.L., Phone Home!
Posted September 17th, 2010 at 1:54 pm (UTC-4)
Nevada is so desolate that there isn’t even much of a highway between Reno in the north near Lake Tahoe, and Las Vegas, far to the south near the mammoth Hoover Dam. You drive mostly two-lane U.S. 95, amid low brown hills, scrub bushes, Joshua trees, and rattlesnakes along the 715 kilometers (445 miles) between […]
Virginia Byways and Pieways
Posted August 5th, 2010 at 1:34 pm (UTC-4)
I told you a bit about Virginia last time but didn’t have the time or space to describe the full scope of what just might be our most historically significant state. It was not only an incubator of American independence and the cradle of American presidents — eight of them — but also the scene […]
The Old Dominion
Posted July 30th, 2010 at 12:24 pm (UTC-4)
After reading my post about suburbia a couple of times back, my colleague Penelope Poulou, who lives in Alexandria, Virginia, pointed out that even though Alexandria is considered part of suburban Washington, D.C., the city of 145,000 people is nothing like stereotypical modern suburbs. Founded in 1749, 52 years before Washington even existed, Alexandria was […]
Beantown
Posted December 29th, 2009 at 8:20 pm (UTC-4)
For some reason, this is the time of year that I think of Boston, the unofficial capital of America’s northeast New England region. That’s odd in a way, since I’ve never spent the holidays there, and now’s when the gray skies and snow and slush set in for the winter. One memory that I have […]
