By Madeline Gressman Nahant’s algae was rotting. The entire town reeked of sea decay, with countless fish and one seal washing ashore, dead. There wasn’t an escape from the odor; it seeped through our walls and weaved in with our clothes. Fans blasted at all hours, swirling the air in circles in a hope to […]
In Love with Cassis
By Marcia De Sanctis One of the great pleasures of writing a book about France is having the opportunity to give talks about some of my most beloved places. My audience is often a sea of erudite women assembled over petits-fours or roast lamb lunches. At the conclusion, the question always comes, inevitable as the […]
A Stranger to Them (In Cambodia)
By Lana Orndorff New things are scary. Strangers can’t be trusted. Unknown places are dangerous. The echo of these ideas are my personal soundtrack as I search for plane tickets. I click the “confirm purchase” button anyway. The intense screaming of my wanderlust, which sounds similar to a small child that has dropped his pacifier, […]
The Struggle of Women in Science is Written in the Stars
Editor’s note: Finishing up a summer in which a total solar eclipse was a highlight, I was struck by how many people trekked across the United Stated and camped out under the stars to witness the fleeting moment of darkness and silence of this celestial event. I was dumbstruck when I read Leila A. McNeill’s […]
WELL: Editor’s Note Issue 3
Our summer issue, WELL, is predicated on the idea that the summer is a time to recharge. We take vacations, we spend time outdoors and with our families. We focus on “happy.” When I think of well being, I tend to think of it as a holistic system: personal health is inextricably intertwined with mental […]
Great Blue (Washington, DC)
By Stewart Lawrence Strolling recently in Washington, DC’s, Rock Creek Park, I had a rare close encounter with one of the Park’s dwindling number of Great Blue Herons. While joggers streaked by, oblivious to its presence, and rush-hour traffic passed noisily overhead, I sat in wordless wonder as the Great Blue, clinging to a half-submerged log, […]
Taking the Waters at the Greenbrier (West Virginia)
Editor’s note: Marsha B. Wassel visited the Greenbrier in West Virginia in May. She gives a review and some background on the curative waters of the area. by Marsha B. Wassel History of the Springs There is a history of seeking wellness high in West Virginia’s Allegheny Mountains, where mineral springs flow deep in the […]
Unexpected Delays (Denmark)
By Taylor Hawkins Sarte Moore and his wife, Claudia, were closing in on their destination, a particular spot near a village on the Faroe Islands, a series of sea islands in the remote northwestern region of Denmark’s property. It was closer to Scotland than Denmark, but the landscape was unmistakably Nordic. The high-peaking cliffs, dusted […]
Feel-good fractals: from ocean waves to Jackson Pollock’s art
By Florence Williams When Richard Taylor was 10 years old in the early 1970s in England, he chanced upon a catalogue of Jackson Pollock paintings. He was mesmerised, or perhaps a better word is Pollockised. Franz Mesmer, the crackpot 18th-century physician, posited the existence of animal magnetism between inanimate and animate objects. Pollock’s abstractions also […]
Go: Editor’s Note Issue 2
By Adria Carey Perez Are there any paths not beaten? I tend to think of these paths as experiences that are unique–that you didn’t read about in the guidebook, and that usually involve a chance encounter with a person or a wrong turn on the way to the restaurant. You are more likely to have […]