image courtesy Clarkson Potter Mention the state of things at the Food Network and its spinoff, The Cooking Channel and you're bound to get an opinion.  When I was in Pastry School 4 years ago, I found it had a lot to do with what generation you belonged to.  Those of us with an interest in the food world can not have escaped the road taken since their inception.  But, that is all besides the point here.  This post is about Ina. Each year … [Read more...]

 photo courtesy New York Times Ok, I may just be a little cranky today.  I'm going to lose my beloved dog and I'm beyond devastated about it.  And yes, I need something else to become fixated on today…….. to yap about, to become full of ire about, in order that I might not just turn to mush.  It didn't take me too long to find it once I opened the newspaper.  I already knew the story.  The article just became a vehicle of convenience. Well, … [Read more...]

 image courtesy Matthew Weiner and AMC Well, so many people have been mourning the end of the series Mad Men over the last few days. (Not to mention the end of David Letterman.)  courtesy the New Yorker Well, actually, many have been in mourning since the end of the show was announced in 2013.  And, perhaps herein lies the problem, or should I say an illustration of the "Mad Men effect".   That would be "our" so-typical propensity to … [Read more...]

Cellini, the family Medici, the Borgias, Vivaldi, Dante, St. Thomas Aquinas, St. Francis of Assisi, Julius Caesar, Columbus, Fellini, Caruso, Galileo, Da Vinci, Michaelangelo, Raphael, Caravaggio, Garibaldi, Pavarotti, Marco Polo, Stradivari, Verdi, Puccini, Rossini, Scarlatti, Bellini, Machiavelli, Andrea Amati, Marconi……..  just a tiny fraction of a list. If, like me, you are not really all that well versed in the culture, history and … [Read more...]