Food Book: Philadelphia Chef’s Table : Extraordinary Recipes from the City of Brotherly Love (2012) by April White
By Brette Sember
Philadelphia conjures notions of freedom and American spirit. I visited Philadelphia once years ago and have a few memories of the city that are rather different. The hotel fire alarm malfunctioned in the middle of the night, which did not create a restful trip. The Liberty Bell was extremely underwhelming (MUCH smaller than you might expect) and the famous “Rocky” stairs (at the Philadelphia Museum of Art) were indeed daunting. The cheesesteak was pretty good. The best memory I have is of a meal we had at the restaurant school. So, Philadelphia and food are wedded in my mind. Continue reading A Foodie Journey Through Philadelphia→
Destination: Suburban Philadelphia and rural New Jersey
Book: Come Home (NEW 2012) by Lisa Scottoline (Review copy listened to on audio book by MacMillanAudio)
Jill Farrow, suburban mom and heroine of Come Home, needs to work on her impulse control. On the other hand, if she stopped and thought about it before jumping in a car to chase a bad guy, this would be a pretty boring book, so I can forgive the author, who definitely knows her way around a suspenseful plot.Lisa Scottoline has produced eighteen award-and-reader-winning mystery novels. Judging by this book, Scottoline has a great sense of humor, has learned a thing or two about complex family relationships, and loves animals. Continue reading When Do You Stop Being a Mother?→
Let’s play word association. What do you think of when you hear “Memorial Day”? Okay, hands up, who said “Sale?”
Those of you whose hands are not up—you’re showing your age.
Memorial Day poster, showing graves at Arlington National Cemetery
In the small town in Ohio where I grew up, the cemetery was up on the hill behind the Church of Christ. It was called Schoolhouse Hill, because the school stood beside the cemetery. And every Memorial Day in my childhood, the VFW (Veterans of Foreign Wars) put down their beer bottles, donned as much of their old uniforms as they could still get in to, and held a ceremony up on the hill, distributing flags to all the graves of old soldiers.
Red poppy “In Flanders’ Fields, the poppies blew…”
Every house flew a flag, and most people pinned on red artificial poppies that they bought from the VFW–the funds going to veterans in need.
Fallen warriors were not the only ones honored, though. It became a day to honor one’s ancestors as well. That was the day that people cleaned up the area around family plots, put flowers in pots, or planted them in the ground and stood and thought a minute or two about each ancestor. People still do that in small town America. So in the spirit of a Memorial Day that used to mean something more than “Sale”, here are some past posts about America and patriotism in travel and books to add to your travel library. So plan a trip, read a book, remember.
WW II Re-enactment
A ceremony in Fredericksburg Texas and a magnificent World War II museum. The book: Fortress Rabaul: The Battle for the Southwest Pacific, January 1942-April 1943.
Memorial at Normandy World War II American Cemetery
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Thanks, as usual to those photographers at Flickr who took some of these photos. I took the Normandy, the Civil war grave and George Washington photos. If you are interested in using a photo, be sure to ask the photographer for permission.
