History, for me, is best understood in manageable nuggets. I keep targeting the French revolution because of the convergence of so many ideas: the roles of church, state, kings, budgets, freedom, violence, revenge. I can’t imagine I’ll ever understand it, or why it flowed quite the way it did, but I keep looking and reading…
Author: BashfulAdventurer
Without Plans in Chi-Town
After more than enough days sitting in a beige conference room somewhere in the city, I decided that a weekend of a great void would be more than alluring. All I knew was that we’d stay over in Chicago; we didn’t quite know where; we’d get to that then. The lake was a draw, but…
Visit Versailles via ‘Farewell, My Queen’
Does anyone understand Marie Antoinette? How someone, anyone, the queen of France could be so entirely oblivious about what was going on all around her entirely befuddles me. Every time I make excuses for her—she was too young for her role, her husband was supposed to be in charge—I can’t help but think of another…
Chicago: On Being a Veg-Head in a Town Full of Beef
UPDATE: The Bashful Adventurer laments the closing of the Green Zebra in Chicago at the end of 2017. Judging from my casual perusal of various restaurant menus during my most recent work trip to the Windy City, Chicago foodies remain dedicated to meat. At most of the places I visited, there’d be a nod to…
Watch the Latest Anna Karenina for the Mood, Not the Views
The 2012 version of Anna Karenina, starring Keira Knightley and Jude Law as Anna and Karenin, features plenty of Russian darkness and bad behavior but not as many images of Russia as I would have liked. For those planning to visit Russia, the film is still worth a watch; what it lacks in actual Russian…
Arlington Strong
History classes in high school, and even in college, often, to me, were tedious exercises taught by some who just didn’t manage to bring the subject alive. It’s ironic, then, that I would be so engaged in the topic at a place for the dead: Arlington National Cemetery. Walking somewhat randomly, but generally following groups…
Something Different for Date Night: Wine, Cheese & Howling with Wolves
Looking for more than dinner and a movie on date night? Try wine, cheese, and howling with wolves at the Wolf Conservation Center in South Salem, N.Y.
The Oblivious Queens of Versailles
Visiting Versailles, the palace of French kings, and the Conciergerie, the prison where Queen Marie Antoinette spent her last days, one can’t help but wonder, How could it possibly have ended like this? Elements of the story do make sense: the queen seemed largely unschooled, her spouse weak, her home far removed from any squalor….