Traveling the World...Without Leaving Richardson

This article was originally published in "Richardson Living" magazine. Read it on that website or read it here. Or read it in print. Look for it in your mail box.

Traveling the World...Without Leaving Richardson

City Hall

The town where I grew up was anything but diverse. It seemed to me like everyone was white and descended from northern European Catholics or Protestants, just like I was. There were no blacks on my street. Or anywhere else in my not-so-small city. There were no Hispanics. Or Asians. No Muslims or Buddhists or Hindus. There were no other ethnic groups in my school. Or in my church. I grew up in Appleton, Wisconsin, in the mid-twentieth century. I thought I was unprejudiced. In fact, I just didn't have any opportunities to test me. To me, diversity meant we had a German Catholic church and an Irish Catholic church. There was no Italian Catholic church, but there was a place to get pizza, said to be the first pizza restaurant north of Milwaukee. That was our ethnic food. You get the idea. Appleton has come a long way since I left town fifty years ago to see the world, but that's the place I came from.

POTD: Sun Voyager on a Rainy Day

From 2019 03 01 Iceland

Today's photo-of-the-day is from Reykjavik, Iceland. The sculpture on the sea front is Sun Voyager, which according to Wikipedia has been "described as a dreamboat, or an ode to the Sun. The artist intended it to convey the promise of undiscovered territory, a dream of hope, progress and freedom."

POTD: Tjörnin Swans

From 2019 03 01 Iceland

Today's photo-of-the-day is from Reykjavik, Iceland. Tjörnin is a small lake in the center of the city. The word Tjörnin in fact means lake or pond, so calling it Tjörnin Lake would be like calling it Lake Lake. According to Wikipedia, the popular pastime of feeding the swans has led to the lake being called "the biggest bread soup in the world."

Bonus photo after the jump.

Modern Love (TV 2019)

Rotten Tomatoes

Modern Love (TV 2019): Anthology. Adaptations of personal essays from NY Times. No violence. No shocks. No twist endings. Just the many forms that love takes. It does what it sets out to do very well. A welcome diversion. Lots of familiar faces. B-

POTD: Frikirkjan and Hallgrimskirkja

From 2019 03 01 Iceland

Today's photo-of-the-day is from Reykjavik, Iceland. It's a human-sized (pop. 125,000), walkable city, pleasant even in winter, on mild days, anyway. The week in late winter that we visited the temperatures were actually warmer than they were back in Dallas. We joked we had traveled to Iceland to escape the Dallas winter. With the warm Gulf Stream and global warming, Iceland just might grow more popular as a winter destination.

Bonus photos after the jump.