During World War I, the time frame of Under the Same Blue Sky, here’s what you’d find at San Francisco’s Hotel St. Francis. Notice: quite a lot of shellfish, not much meat, chicken cost less than lobster, and one dessert.…
Blog Archives
Cartooning World War I
Cartooning the horrors and political complexities of World War 1 produced some lovely illustrations.
Posted in Under the Same Blue Sky
Last Christmas Present
In August of 1992, my mother was diagnosed with a virulent lung cancer. By early December, it was clear that there wasn’t much time left. I was living in Naples, Italy. My parents were in Austin, Texas. I’d arranged to…
Posted in Just life
When a yak is not enough
I always had a romantic fondness for yaks, dating from my child’s anthology of literature which included the poem below by Hilaire Belloc, illustrated with a pen and ink drawing of a friendly yak carrying a little girl who looked…
Feeling good/bad about our species
Last month we were in southern France and remarkably went to not a single wine tasting. However, we saw and climbed up to assorted castle/fortresses of the 12th C Cathar heretics, who so peeved the pope and king and adventure-loving…
Posted in Just life
High Winds in Milos
Some years ago, Maurizio and I were on our way home to Italy from the Greek island of Milos, It was late August, the season of high winds, the sort that plagued Odysseus and prompted Agamemnon to sacrifice his daughter,…
Posted in Just life
Hey, here’s a story you should write.
Anyone who writes hears this often: “Hey, I’ve got a story you should write.” And you want to listen and do listen, because 1) why not be polite? and 2) story-sharing is good and also fun, and 3), but a…
Posted in Writing
So many orphans
Pre-20th Century European literature is full of orphans. For good reason. Consider these statistics from the Encyclopedia of Children and Childhood in History and Society. In 17th & 18th C western European, 1 out of 3 children had lost at…
Posted in WWWS
Not everybody does that?
It can be a shock to think yourself pretty normal in X behavior and discover, well, maybe not. Or maybe it’s a writer thing. Here’s what happened. There I am having wine with a good friend who is also a…
Posted in Writing
Our Irish-Bulgarian Cabbage Connection
For St. Patrick’s Day, we’re having corned beef and Bulgarian cabbage. The recipe for the latter was part of our daughter Emilia’s patrimony when we adopted her at age 10 from Bulgaria. With no English, she took us shopping for…
pamelaschoenewaldt.com 