Feast of Saint Martin, not coincidentally, Veteran’s Day and WWI Armistice

Saint Martin is one of the saints that everyone thinks they know. He was a Roman soldier who cut his cloak in half to share with a beggar. Then he discovers that the beggar was actually Jesus himself. Martin gives up his life in the army, becomes a hermit, a reluctant bishop, and a symbol [...]

Eye candy from the Art Institute

My mother put herself through college in the late 1930's. She started at the University of Wisconsin, took some classes in Chicago while working there for Barnhardt, the dictionary people, and then finished through the University of Wisconsin extension. She used to talk about going to the Art Institute, and I had no idea what [...]

Death Comes to the Science Fair

My new book will be out in less than a month… I hope. It’s difficult to stay on track but I’ve done a monster edit over the last six months. Like this drawing, my story was missing some legs. Miss May Belfort Drawing by Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec National Gallery of Art, DC public domain Separately, [...]