Remember summer? Summer for me is this: Kick the Can in the dusk around “the warehouse”… an old house abandoned house across the street with a grassy lot in front and gravelled alley out back. “Everybody OUTSIDE!” … the sound of my mother’s voice above everything, sending us to where we first were reluctant, but, after,…
Pooping Dogs, Booming Thunder and Other Traffic Hazards
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It stands to reasons that a state within smelling distance from NYC, with only two major, parallel, “North-South” roads, 3.5 million residents and acre-sized residential lots, there will be some traffic. Now, I am not opposed to spending some time in my car. In fact, I adore being alone in my car, despite my green…
At Work again
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Today is day two of work. Work. Work. What is that, you say? Work? Why would I do such a foolish thing like that, when I had the cushy life, sitting around, eating bon bons, sleeping in, and “writing” all day? Well, it’s a weird thing, but productivity, it seems, begets itself. At least in…
On Your Visit to Connecticut
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The Best of Connecticut can only be found by leaving the interstate and exploring the winding country roads.A few tips: Got a GPS? Good. It makes life that much sweeter. Stay in a small town, an hour from the coast, minumum. Nothing is too far to drive to, especially the beaches. The more you avoid…
Having a Fit in America
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Having landed safely and been released through Homeland Security, it all begs the first burning question: What is the first thing you buy in the Land of Capitalism after living in Europe for three years? That’s right. A car. Tainted by the foolish, small-car-ways of European car makers (they invented something called a “SmartCar” for…
About the Author
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Writer Elizabeth Howard has survived life in Iowa, Kansas City, Walt Disney World, Colorado Springs, Long Island and, (most recently) London, to name a few stops on her journeys. A graduate of the Iowa State University journalism program and the University of Missouri at Kansas City English program, she combats perennial eduational self-esteem issues. A…
Where to Eat in Maida Vale whilst waiting for Gordon Ramsay and Holdings to get the Warrington Sorted
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Or… Hello, lovely Idlewild, so long dodgy Truscott Arms… Somewhere between the time Gordon Ramsay circled the Warrington last autumn in his 4×4 and this week’s first big test match at Lord’s, the Ruby Group of London has SOMEHOW managed to buy, close, gut, decorate, and re-open the council-housing hangout Truscott Arms on Shirland Road…
What the pub did for me
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At a pub, I learned the English are hard to get to know. But once you know them, it’s hard to let them go. And they don’t let go easy. They are like old dogs. Completely faithful. But they probably won’t leap up when you come in. In a pub I learned how beautiful cigarette…
Maida Vale is our Local
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If you must leave someplace, you should leave it sad to go. After we left our Randolph Avenue flat, we were desperate to stay in Maida Vale. It isn’t the best place in London, just as any single person isn’t the best person in the world. No. Just like a person,
The Bell Ringers of Westminster Abbey
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Aimee came to visit me and, so, I did what I do when people come to visit… I made plans. Came across a listing in Time Out London magazine (the website is useful, but nothing beats the actual publication… it is original, poignant and catches the exact tone of London’s edge. Not just a calendar.)…
Treading Water at the Warrington
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God, it’s gorgeous right now in Maida Vale… I just glanced down Clifton Gardens one afternoon and, suddenly, every tree is in leaf and the air is full of the smell of hyacinths in bloom. Ahhh, spring… a time for freshness, renewal, of kicking open doors, shaking out rugs, polishing windowpanes, letting in the light.…
Ben’s Thai London… Now Dang!
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For those still looking for Maida Vale’s favourite Thai restaurant, Ben’s Thai, formerly of the Warrington Hotel, don’t worry, it hasn’t gone far. Under the new name, Dang at Ben’s Thai, Dang and her clan have moved above another pub, the Robert Browning, on Clifton Road. This gritty old man’s boozer, situated on a properly…
Glad day in London.
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Days and days of beauty and wonder in London… Shhhh!! … Can’t talk just now… Too busy exchanging ideas with this flower and listening to Cary… “All the lights on and you are alive But you can’t point the way to your heart So sublime, when the stars are aligned But you don’t know You…
Gordon versus the Empire
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Bill Buford’s recent article on Gordon Ramsay’s slog in the U.S. (“The Taming of the Chef: Can Gordon Ramsay make it here?” April, 3, 2007 ) has me thinking again about the sins and virtues of the Ramsay Holdings pub venture, and the exhausting drive my darling head chef is taking into my homeland. I…
Behind my eyes
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“The past is never dead, it is not even past.” ~William Faulkner A woman I served at the Warrington said hello to me on the street today. I was walking to Starbucks to get started working. I thought, as I saw her: She drinks gin and soda and fresh lime, loves a man who drinks…
