HARTFORD — Mark Twain was a well-traveled literary superstar, so famous that his editor once journeyed to Washington to ask President Theodore Roosevelt if he would move Thanksgiving because it coincided with Twain’s birthday plans. (Twain moved his party.) But in 1879, on a book tour through Europe, he craved the simplest foods from home,…
Concealed behind the pasty mask, the trademark fright wig and the impassive expression Andy Warhol showed to the world was a man of roiling complexities. Depending on who does the talking, Warhol was either an emotional vampire draining vital juices from the animated nut-jobs he gathered to him or a kindly, if slightly creepy, avuncular…
After 30 hours of bumping along on planes and buses, at long last I stood in the darkness and gazed upon an immense night sky. My long journey seemingly had brought me to the shoreline of interstellar space rather than the high-altitude plateau that is Chile’s Atacama Desert. It was the first night of a…
The Dutch actor Michiel Huisman doesn’t believe in ghosts, but he does worship Ping-Pong. On a recent Thursday afternoon, Mr. Huisman had tip-tapped down a steep flight of stairs on East 23rd Street and into Spin New York, a neon-lit basement Ping-Pong palace with a view of the downtown 6 train. It’s around the corner…
Bradypnea is the medical term for abnormally slow breathing. There are many possible causes of bradypnea, or bradypnoea, including cardiac problems, medications or drugs, and hormonal imbalances. In this article, we take a close look at bradypnea, including the breathing rate for it, the causes, and treatment options. What is bradypnea? A person who takes…
In the medical world, there is an ongoing debate about the extent to which regularly screening for breast cancer actually improves a person’s chances of survival if cancer is detected. New research tries to settle that debate. Screening for breast cancer brings important benefits, new research concludes. Breast cancer is the most common type of…
Image Pots and pans by Great Jones. The full collection retails for $395 and includes the Dutch oven, a stainless steel stock pot, a stainless sauce pot, a stainless deep saute and a ceramic nonstick skillet. The Dutch oven, called The Dutchess, retails for $145 and comes in five colors: Blueberry, Broccoli, Earl Grey, Mustard…
Armistice Day was first celebrated in 1919, a year after the armistice that ended the long and terrible first World War, taking effect at precisely 11:11 a.m. on Nov. 11. It was renamed Veterans Day in 1954, to honor all those who had served, but also perhaps to acknowledge that the “war to end all…
As my brother neared the end of a smooth, swift recovery from open-heart surgery to bypass an 80-percent blockage in his heart’s most important artery recently, he reverted to a longstanding habit of downing many cups a day of strong coffee. I objected, but he insisted that the caffeine doesn’t affect him, meaning it doesn’t…