Shop for Yourself

Almost a quarter of a century ago (we tend to round up numbers) we made the first of many visits to the National Building Museum — and its shop — in Washington, DC. Today we eat daily on flatware designed by Robert Venturi for Swid Powell that we acquired on a sale at the shop. more »

We've observed an uptick in cell phone use for research purposes recently, including confirmation of the owner's accuracy in a conversation with friends. "Let me check that (on my phone)". They're also looking up times that events will start, nearby restaurants, objects on view at a musem, shopping nearby and so on. more »

Tam Gray writes, '"The flowers bloom like tiny enchanting fireworks: a star burst of bracts surround the spray of small flowers and splashy groups of buds shoot out from branched stems like the finale on the Fourth of July". The flip flops? Wearing the astrantia blooms on my feet is quite another pleasure.' " more »

Nilla Childs has framed Puzzled: 100 pieces of Autism in what she terms the 8 steps to completing a jigsaw puzzle; and learning how to give up "what does not work." Megan Bergman’s fine, fine collection of short stories, Birds of a Lesser Paradise, have both moral profundity and light-hearted humor. If you're looking for the next big page-turner, you've found it in The Expats. Chris Pavone is a dab hand at both mayhem and domesticity, something unusual in the business of flash-and-dash spy novels.  more »