Colcannon is a traditional Irish dish with many regional variations. It is a staple made with potatoes, milk, butter, and cabbage or kale. Other ingredients can be added, such as leeks, scallions, onions, chives, and laverbread. It’s an inexpensive fare that can be eaten year-round and also works as a side dish for boiled ham, […] Read more

Cited as the first major film noir, The Maltese Falcon is an American film based on a novel by Dashiell Hammett. Humphrey Bogart plays private investigator Sam Spade, who is troubled by three unscrupulous adventurers competing to obtain a falcon statuette. The film was John Houston’s first as director, and he and Bogie became lifelong […] Read more

The 2004 American romantic drama The Notebook stars Ryan Gosling and Rachel McAdams and was directed by Nick Cassavetes. It was turned into a screenplay by Jan Sardi and Jeremy Leven. The Notebook film was based on the 1996 novel of the same name by Nicholas Sparks. It is set in the 1940s and tells […] Read more

Playwright and British poet Robert Browning was a master of dramatic monologues and verse, making him one of the prominent Victorian authors. His most famous work is the 303 lines of the narrative poem The Pied Piper of Hamelin, a Child’s Story. It is a classic tale of Hamelin, a town desperate to remove the […] Read more

The Princess Bride is a fantasy romantic comedy about Westley, a farmhand who must rescue his Princess Buttercup from the pompous and evil Prince Humperdink. Based on a metafictional narrative-style novel, the film became a cult classic and one of co-producer Rob Reiner’s best works. The all-star cast made it one of the best films […] Read more

Mandalay means a city on the Irrawaddy River in central Myanmar. It is the former capital and second-largest city of Burma, a Buddhist religious center. In 1890, Rudyard Kipling published “Mandalay,” also called “The Road to Mandalay,” a poem set in colonial Burma, which was a part of British India at the time. The poem […] Read more

The word “fairy,” or fay, fey, fairies, faeries, or fae can mean different things. As a noun, it can mean a mystical creature, or as an adjective, it can mean enchanted or magical. It can also refer to the land from where they hail. Some say they bite and it feels like a sting or […] Read more

The American coming-of-age television comedy series ran from March 1988 to May 1993. It chronicles the story of a suburban teenager growing up in a middle-class family in the 60s and 70s. After only six episodes it won a Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Comedy Series. Fred Savage, the main character, was the youngest actor […] Read more

When I was 12 years old a lot happened in 1968. I grew up in the suburbs, which you may think is better than the city but worse than the country. But it was actually great for us kids, a golden age, or wonder years […] Read more