history

The View from the Hill

January 4, 2011
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I‘ve previously written about the history of the hill on which I live; it was the location of a fort that was instrumental in preventing the British from advancing into Boston and Cambridge. You can read a brief history here, and view a period map here. This year the unseasonably warm weather drew us out [...]

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The Beginning of a Great Adventure

October 30, 2009
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Sixteen years ago today, Diane and I were married at Dwight Chapel at Yale University. After months of wrangling and planning a ceremony and reception that remained firmly in our control, the actual day itself was a blur, full of the little crises that define modern weddings. Fortunately, the events I do recall  have fixed [...]

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What the Fluff?

September 28, 2009
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In addition to being the location of the raising of the first American flag, my neighborhood of Union Square also holds the honor of being the birthplace of Marshmallow Fluff, invented in 1917 by Somerville resident Archibald Query. Three years later Query sold the recipe to H. Allen Durkee and Fred L. Mower, and the [...]

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In a Tudor Kitchen

May 30, 2009

While watching Heston Blumenthal’s Tudor Feast, I had to agree with Blumenthal that during the reign of the Tudors the English ruled the culinary world. He staged a modern version of a typical Tudor feast to demonstrate the level of sophistication Tudor-era food reached. He did all the research, used authentic recipes, and made modifications [...]

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