Avoiding Death by Alligator and Other Tragedies The horrific death of Lane Graves, a toddler visiting Disney in Orlando, serves as a reminder to all travelers to remember customs, and dangers unknown to us, in places we visit. There…
Finding a Founding Father at the National Postal Museum U.S. Founding Father Benjamin Franklin offers something of interest to just about everyone. The younger set tends to be drawn to his kite-flying exploits, elders might explore his history with bifocals,…
A Visit to the City Buried by a Volcano The first time I go to Pompeii, the journey is work: a missed train from Salerno to Pompei, followed by a train that surely must be the local rather than anything…
The Lure of Hot Lava Living in New York State, as I do, I haven’t historically had to worry much about volcanoes and the possibility that they might at some point obstruct my way, or worse. The first time I…
In New York or Paris, Rodin’s Sculpture Charms What sculpture might be as well-known as the Statue of Liberty? Could it be Auguste Rodin’s Le Penseur (The Thinker), accessible at the Musée Rodin in Paris and, with a contemporary twist…
A Reminder of New York City’s Past as “Sailortown” Down at the South Street Seaport in Manhattan is a little reminder about a big ship that never made it there. The Titanic Memorial Lighthouse, at Fulton and Pearl Streets, was…
How to Get Youthful or Just Impatient Adventurers through Art Museums without Tripping Alarms The first few days of any trip to Italy might be just fine for a visitor, what with the jetlag and the joy of being in…
A Russian Revolution Chronicler’s Extraordinary Life I am late to the life of Louise Bryant. I become interested in her long after watching Reds, and reading her husband’s book, Ten Days That Shook the World, and going to Russia, where…
Seeing Where the World Really Changed It seems almost unimaginable now that for so many years, between 1961 and November 9, 1989, a wall divided East and West Berlin and tourists couldn’t cross easily beneath the Brandenburg Gate, and East…