Category Archives: Books and Culture

Among the Tudors

My oldest and dearest friend from growing up in D.C. recently urged me most vociferously to read Hilary Mantel’s Wolf Hall, published in 2009. It is the story of the years leading up to Henry VIII’s battle with Rome over … Continue reading

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New date, time for Pennoyer talk

Fawlty information! Oops! Here’s the new, correct information on Peter Pennoyer’s talk in June at the Boston Athenaeum. Sorry for any confusion: Thursday, June 12 – Lecture by Peter Pennoyer, classical architect in New York City and national board member of … Continue reading

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Two to watch in Providence

While some people in Providence are upset that the owner of a big house at 200 Hope Street, by Russell Warren, across from the Wheeler School, is to be broken up into apartments, and with no intent to alter the … Continue reading

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Chastity in art selection

As many readers of this blog are aware, it arises largely as a vehicle to reprint my column published in The Providence Journal.  Readers can read the first few paragraphs of the column and then click on a link to … Continue reading

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Sneaky review of “The Monster-Builder”

Now that the play “The Monster-Builder,” by Amy Freed, has opened – indeed premiered – at the Artists Repertory Theatre in Portland, Ore., here is a theater review. The writer, Richard Wattenberg, is not identified other than as, I presume, … Continue reading

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Britannica on architecture, c. 1911

I dragged out my 11th edition of the Encyclopedia Britannica. My edition is actually the 12th edition, which is the 11th plus an appendix updating, in 1922, various important subjects, many of which had seen their articles in the famous … Continue reading

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Review of “The Monster-Builder”

Michael Mehaffy, of Portland, Ore., and the TradArch list, sends this review from The Oregonian of the new play at the Artists Repertory Theatre there by Stanford University’s playwright-in-residence, Amy Freed. Michael pulls out this interesting quote from the review: … Continue reading

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See sequestered salacious montage here!

An anonymous donor responded to a challenge in an earlier post about the Chinese newspaper headquarters and the proposed soccer stadium (read it here), and sent me the above image, exclaiming that the challenge was “too easy.” The image is … Continue reading

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Save NYC’s Rizzoli bookstore

I don’t see many petitions I’m inclined to sign but I signed one just a few moments ago. It was a petition to save the building that houses the publisher Rizzoli’s flagship store in a glorious old building on West … Continue reading

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