New Orleans
It’s no surprise that a city as diverse in culture, cuisine and citizenry requires multiple monikers to capture is magic. New Orleans is known by turns as “The Big Easy’, The Birthplace of Jazz”, “The Little Paris of the New World”, “Mardi Gras City” and “The City that Care Forgot”. The current favorite sobriquet? – “The Big Easy”. In the early 1900’s New Orleans had a dance hall named The Big Easy, but it wasn’t until 70 years later, when Betty Guillaud, columnist for the Times-Picayune used the term to compare New York (The Big Apple) to New Orleans (The Big Easy) that the name took...
Read MoreRoad to Romance
So many flirtations, assignations, and secret trysts have commenced with the flutter of a handkerchief, it’s no surprise that hundreds of hankies carry images of amour. Naturally roses and romance go hand in hand, with many a suitor gifting everything from hand embroidered bouquets To dazzling displays of bonbons bursting from a bevy of blossoms. An elaborately draped blackamoor displays a stunning bouquet sent by a suitor with the card “see you tonight.” His boutonniere matches the bouquet, providing a subtle reminder throughout the evening of his adoration. Our...
Read MoreAnimal Magnetism
For the cynic who says love is for the birds – you’re absolutely right! In this hankie everyone from the cuckoo to the dodo, the parrot to the nighthawk have something to squawk about, while an ermine robed Queen Bee holds court center stage. I doubt this hankie will satiate an endlessly inquisitive child, but then, the birds and bees chestnut has always been mostly an escape hatch for flustered parents, leaving kids more baffled and befuddled than before. “Birds do it, bees do it, even educated fleas do it. Let’s do it; let’s fall in love.” Let’s Fall in Love, 1933 by Harold Arlen and...
Read MoreChicago
Oh Chicago, where to begin? Trying to describe the city is akin to eating an elephant in one bite – overwhelming and impossible. Chicago has been called audacious, gritty, tenacious, and rugged, as well as heroic, epic, splendid, and irresistible. Poet Carl Sandburg captured her synergy best in his poem Chicago, when he claimed the ‘City of Big Shoulders’ is “a chant of defiance…defiance of New York, Boston, Philadelphia, London, Paris, Berlin and Rome. The poem sort of says “Maybe we ain’t got culture, but we’re eatin’ regular.” Hmmmm. I take umbrage...
Read MoreVive la France
“What an immense impression Paris made upon me. It is the most extraordinary place in the world.” Charles Dickens Where to start in the City of Light? You could spend a lifetime meandering this magical metropolis and never begin to discover the treasures it holds. With 20 arrondissements arranged like a spiraled nautilus, you find yourself wandering down alleyways, across avenues and along boulevards, sampling a bounty of bistros and boutiques, monuments and musées, parcs and panoramas. It’s all too sumptuous and sensational. From postered kiosks to cozy cafes, from gallant gendarmes to...
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