On Honeymoon #2, we traveled by train (and by foot) to Giverny — Like London, when one gets tired of Paris, one gets tired of life. I’m lifting that from the scion of British Literature — Dr. Johnson. Would Johnson approve of the comparison — with that whole Norman Invasion thing in 1066? For two weeks, my wife Mary Jane and I had…

Communion with the Past is Tongued with Fire from the Present — Something weird happened. It was on the boat at Harbour North Marina on the Delaware and Chesapeake Canal. This was during a warm night. It was well after midnight. An electric fan was blowing warm air around the cabin. All the screened windows were open to hearing the crickets from…

Nothing beats pairing a creamy porter with a great book — <Chill drum beat and crackling fire appear with opening credits> Hi, everyone. Walter “Down with Bowne” here. <Walter Bowne in a black peacoat jacket and a black Carhartt hat and Kane Brewery black t-shirt sits in front of a fire with a beer and a book> Welcome to my first…

The real monster in Shelley’s famous novel is Dr. Frankenstein — “So started up in his own shape the Fiend. Back stept those two faire Angels half amaz’d So sudden to behold the grieslie King; Yet thus, unmovd with fear, accost him soon.” — John Milton, Paradise Lost. Book IV Danny: Let’s talk legacy. If you were gonna write an essay…

As well as using Nature to keep your Eden chemical free — The secret to building a garden on the cheap, besides cuttings (propagation) and dividing, is to purchase plants after bloom in off season. Each hosta was 75% off. Then just add leaf mulch to minimize weeds, retain moisture…

Today, my editor-in-chief assigned the staff that writing prompt — In the film, “Unstuck in Time,” the author Kurt Vonnegut confessed we don’t know the first thing about time. Yet we live on such linear timelines…

The 7th in a series of my top 100 novels in English — 61. The Naked and the Dead by Norman Mailer (1948) OK, here’s another that took ages for me to tackle. And I’m surprised because I love war novels — with the notable exception of The Red Badge of Courage. Norman Mailer seems now one of those suspicious ‘toxic males” like Hemingway that I had so admired when a young lad…

Charting the complicated path of Mary Shelley’s famous novel — Danny: Hey, we’re back for Flight #2. This is where we talk about the plot of Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein. (Flight #1 is here). Walter: It was interesting — the Godwins were part of the Literati in London, and Coleridge — Samuel Tyler — a very famous early Romantic poet, would…

An un-modern fairy tale — Thinking only two days had passed, a brief, overnight stop at the Hollow, Enrich returned to the village H — dorf in the Bavarian Alps — following the River Lech. It was home, but something had changed although nothing looked different. Hulda, his chestnut colt, and Enrich had, in fact…