“The Cafe”
“Throughout the night, couples took a table, passing the time before their dinner reservations at Fior d’Italia or Ristorante Mona Lisa, the latter famous for the variety of La Gioconda paintings on the walls, one of which was topless, as well as the faux elegance of its red-velvet décor. Sporadically, excitements of teenagers burst through […]
Continue reading“Spring on Campus”
“No place required or made better use of the season than Princeton University. After the harshness and cold of winter, amidst the massive, stony pile of the campus, and into the sterile analytical atmosphere of intellectual work, the subtle, redolent, tender, tinctured, silken, wantonly gorgeous bloom of spring, Persephone redivivus, pranced, jumped, and spun about […]
Continue reading“Young Love Under the Moon”
“Night had now come. Fairy light, from a waxing, gibbous moon that looked like a stone skull leaning back against the sky, a head colored in chamois and yoke yellow, its face blotchy and weathered as if from a thousand battles and a million tribulations, played upon the woods, streams, and rocks around their tent. […]
Continue reading“North Beach”
“The delicatessens, like small-scale food circuses, charmed me, but there was more, far more in North Beach to discover and be delighted by. I loved Italy and Italians and the way they lived their lives: their focus on children and family, their faith, and the enjoyment of the senses God had endowed them with. Life […]
Continue reading“The Italian Neighborhood”
“Cafés were separated by no more than fifty yards at any point. Apparently, the Italians were serious about their espresso. I noticed that there were older cafés that catered to a local crowd and newer ones that seemed to attract younger people and those who happened to be in the neighborhood. In the former, older […]
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