Old News and a Child’s Curiosity
How many of us would eagerly read a bit of newspaper that has been used to wrap food? All of us, ideally, if we had as voracious an appetite for reading as the writer Emmelie [...]
Food and Drink to Sway Voters
How to win an election: have a proven track record of work related to the position being sought, be eloquent about wanting to help your potential constituents, have integrity, hold townhall meetings, …or offer food [...]
A Change of Mind
From vehemently rejecting the French word “menu” to using the very same word matter-of-factly in the title of one’s book—much can change in a few years. In The Culinary Handbook: The Most Complete and Serviceable [...]
Donner à boire à un chat : Marguerite Gérard, la Prison Saint-Lazare
A cat being fed: would seeing images of this lead to curiosity about a women’s prison in Paris or about one of the few successful female painters from late eighteenth- and early nineteenth-century France? It [...]
« Hélas ! j’ai bu, vous croyant mes amis… »
In 1814 General Andrew Jackson urgently needed more soldiers in order to be able to fight off the British who were trying to take New Orleans. On September 21st he appealed to the freemen of [...]
Epidemics and Eateries
Seeing cafés and other eateries closed for weeks on end from Paris to New York City because of the COVID-19 pandemic can be unsettling, but there is some reassuring aspect to knowing that similar precautions [...]
From Buttered Bread to Bravery
Ingesting vinegar-soaked sorrel or medicinal lemon syrup may or may not be of much help in times of plague, whereas “Le courage, le sang-froid, la frugalité, sont les meilleurs préservatifs"— this proposal is found on page 330 of [...]
Where to Begin
Tchékam. San-Phao. Kouang-Tchéou-Wan. Tsamkong. Chamin/Shameen. I have heard of these place names since childhood, blissfully unaware that they were part of the French Concession circa 1899 to 1946 (France had started occupying part of Chamin/Shameen [...]