Bookstores are setting up readers on ‘blind dates’ with books
Never judge a book by its cover — even if the cover doesn’t say much at all.
Volterra and San Gimignano: Two sides of northern Tuscany
I’m in Volterra, my favorite hill town in Tuscany, sitting under rustic, noble stones at the base of a palace that made commoners feel small six centuries ago. Bats burst through the floodlights amid ghostly towers held together with rusted iron corsets.
Volcano Watch: How tiltmeters monitor volcano activity
Over the past century, technological advancements have vastly improved volcano monitoring. One key innovation was the introduction of modern borehole tiltmeters, devices that measure very small changes in the inclination of the volcano’s surface.
It’s squash season, and we’re all about delicata
This time of year, as the light slants and temperatures drop, all I really want for dinner is pasta. It’s the key to a luxuriously easy meal when tossed with the robust vegetables of autumn.
Diabetes Quick Fix: Lemon Dill Salmon with Parsley Rice
Lemon juice and fresh dill flavor this quick and easy salmon dinner. The salmon is baked in the oven and the rice is microwaved.
With a simple salad and dessert, this small-batch chili feeds 2 for under $15
Fall is when many of us start to slow down, and at the same time get a hankering for foods that warm us up on a crisp and chilly day while filling the kitchen with wonderful, comforting aromas.
Let’s Talk Food: Offals, the other meat
Offal is also called variety meats or organ meats. The Germanic word “offall” means “garbage/rubbish or off fall,” literally meaning that these cuts have fallen off during butchering. This could mean blood, used to make blood sausage, brain, cheeks, chitterlings, ears, gizzard, gallbladder, gizzards, heart, head cheese, intestines, kidney, liver, omentum, pancreas, trotters, snout, spleen, sweet bread, swim bladder, tripe, oxtail and tongue.
Steves: Taking in the splendor of Granada
It’s sunset, and I’m at the place to be in Granada — the breathtaking San Nicolás viewpoint overlooking the fortress of the Alhambra. Here, at the edge of the city’s exotic Moorish quarter, lovers, widows, and tourists jostle for the best view of the hill-capping, floodlit fortress, the last stronghold of the Moorish kingdom in Spain. For more than 700 years, Spain, the most Catholic of countries, lived under Muslim rule, until the Christians retook the land in 1492.
Navigating this world-record corn maze is a test of the human psyche
DIXON, Calif. — Deep inside one of the world’s largest corn mazes, where the tri-tip sandwiches and soft-serve ice cream purchased at the concession stand have become but a memory and all that can be seen in any direction are dirt paths and dead-end walls of green plants whispering in the breeze, people tend to reveal themselves.
How 7 friends testing a metal detector made Britain’s most valuable treasure find
LONDON — The group huddled together in the farmer’s field, staring at the dozen or so medieval silver coins. They had found one, then two, and a third — Adam Staples knew, then, this was something special.
Seeking ‘warmth and personality’ in the world of high-priced pens
LONDON — When was the last time you wrote a letter to someone by hand? As we entrust our laptops and phones with more and more of our lives, the once-ubiquitous art of handwriting is seemingly in danger of going extinct. But at a London hotel on a recent Sunday morning, thousands of people turned up to demonstrate that the humble pen may be far from meeting the fate of the dinosaurs.
Volcano Watch: The East Rift Zone of Kilauea was a busy place in the 1960s
The recent eruption at Napau Crater was the first on Kilauea’s middle East Rift Zone (ERZ) in six years. We often remember the Pu‘u‘o‘o and Maunaulu eruptions when thinking about the middle East Rift Zone, but many lesser-known eruptions occurred on the rift zone in the past 200 years, including 11 during the 1960s!
Let’s Talk Food: ‘Sam Choy’s in the Kitchen’ cookbook
KHON2 put out a challenge to their staff to come up with a new local program to air on Sundays at 6:30 p.m. The entire station was involved with collaborating and coming up with different ideas for a new show. This prime time, family/dinner hour show was to create something unique, special, and a destination program to give Hawaii families a fun way to end their weekend and prepare for the week ahead.
Steves: A Dutch day trip to Waterland
While Amsterdam’s popularity is well-deserved, travelers who don’t venture outside the city are missing out on some of Europe’s most charming countryside.
Volcano Watch: Potential long-term outcomes of recent intrusions in Kilauea East Rift Zone
The intense seismicity and ground deformation along the East Rift Zone of Kilauea in the past couple of months is interpreted to indicate intrusion of magma. Some of this magma can leak to the surface in eruptions, but there are less likely long-term consequences that have historical analogues.
The panda factories
WASHINGTON — Two chunky pandas, a male and a female, arrived from China this week at the National Zoo in Washington. If everything goes as planned, they will eventually have cubs.
Burgundy: Bulging barrels, barging and beyond
One of my favorite corners of France is bucolic Burgundy, a region overflowing with imbibable and scenic delights. Crisscrossed with lazy canals and dotted with quiet farming villages, it’s easy to like — and its sunny hillsides produce the superior wines and fine cuisine that say “French.”
She didn’t see other Black hikers. She decided to change that.
INGLETON, England — The women made their way up the narrow stone steps in a winding line, the rolling green fields of the English countryside stretching out across the valley below. The steep climb, which had begun in the early morning, brought them high above an elevated rail line, its imposing Victorian arches rising in the distance.
In Ukraine, small, fluffy dogs offer wartime comfort
KYIV, Ukraine — For two days last month, a vision of canine paradise emerged in the heart of a city regularly pounded by Russian drones and missiles.
The Rhine River: Raging with history
Jostling through crowds of Germans and tourists in the Rhine River village of Bacharach, I climb to the sun deck of the ferry and grab a chair. With the last passenger barely aboard, the gangplank is dragged in and the river pulls us away.
