There’s something about a decent diner that always calms my soul. Sylvie’s hits that sweet spot like no other – a fine place, with fine food and fine people. The girl that owns it – Molly, a sweet kid whose mom would surely be proud of her had she not passed so soon – has […]
Down-home Cooking in Lakewood, Tacoma, and Puyallup
Down-home’s definition is “connected with an unpretentious way of life.” Down-home cooking is food like mom or grandma used to make, but not my mother; that’s another story. Recently, I posted a query on several different Facebook groups: Lakewood, Tacoma, and Puyallup areas. I asked about favorite restaurants that still offered “home cooked,” family-style type […]
Across the Fence: The Green Man
Have you ever traveled to Europe? Ever since having visited the Cathedral of Norwich, UK, I am looking out for Green Men. No kidding, and I don’t mean those supposedly alien creatures from Mars. I mean the legendary Green Men that are lurking in churches and in old castles, but also in old pub signs […]
Letter: Backing Down
The bow holds steady, the stern backs down, and so we ease away from the dock. At least that’s the plan but both of us were reluctant to move. Even the coach in the launch just sat there. Not looking at us or the rest of the crew – doubles like us, fours and eights […]
Not Kidding. We’re History.
History is being made on the Fourth Friday of every month at the Lakewood Senior Activity Center. Believe it or not. That’s the day Amanatee Radio Ear of Sarasota Florida records “Swimming Upstream, Dorothy Wilhelm’s Internet Radio Show.” Where you will hear programming you can’t hear anywhere else. Right this minute, drop everything and go […]
Cactus Growing Popular in the Proctor District
“Cactus” had come up in discussion several times over the last month. It was time to check it out. I invited my sister Marsha and her husband Keith to celebrate her birthday. Keith had to work, but our cousin Lavinia joined Peg and me and Marsha for an early dinner. While Peg went shopping for […]
Letter: When you get to where we got
At the farthest reaches of where we rowed this morning the tight puddles left by our paddles stretched it seemed like forever behind our double shell. They were the only disturbance of the mirrored surface, that and the thin vapor-like trail of our boat’s wake connecting as it were the dots we left behind. We […]
Across the Fence: Schnitzel
What do you think is one of Germany’s most popular and diverse traditional dishes? If you come up with chops also known as Schnitzel, you are right. Schnitzel (pronounced ‘shnitsal) simply means “small cut” or “small slice”, but some of you might even have seen “Tellerschnitzel”, plate-sized ones. It always depends on how elegant or […]
Ballerinas, Grace, Degas, and Peggy Doman
While attending Clover Park High School in the early 1960s, I was an avid reader of Playboy Magazine for the articles, the men’s fashion ads, the often featured art of LeRoy Neiman and, possibly, certain photographs that I found appealing. “Best known for his brilliantly colored, stunningly energetic images of sporting events and leisure activities, […]