Professor Carol
I was astonished to stumble across this picture. A Golden Book Gown! Apparently it uses 22,000 square inches of the shiny material that binds the “Little Golden Books.” You can read more here. Imagine what the publishers of the original dozen titles in 1942 (including … Read more
Recently we’ve become fond of a British vocal group called VOCES8. So today, Christmas Day 2017, we’d like to share their rendition of Lo How a Rose e’re Blooming (Es ist ein Ros entsprungen). A German tune first appearing in print in 1599, it is … Read more
Thanksgiving can wrap us in a swirl of recollections: autumn colors, savory flavors, delicious smells, and the sweet voices of persons long departed. The powerful memories start each Thanksgiving for me when I cradle my mother’s china, each chip bearing its own history. My mother … Read more
All Saints Day and All Souls Day are behind us. You may still have Halloween hangover in your house depending on how long the candy lasted. Soon, attention will turn fully to Thanksgiving. Before entering the world of pumpkin pie, I’d like to reflect upon … Read more
Let me tell you about the radishes here in Budapest. Maybe you have such radishes where you live, but, for me, radishes this big and tasty come only from the “paprika capital” of the world: Hungary. Eating Hungarian radishes is like biting into an apple—juicy … Read more
I thought “the dog days of summer” referred to the conundrum some of us face in August: Should I chase that rabbit? Or just lie here and pant? Tiptoe around every corner and you’ll find a Classical root. Dog Days comes from ancient astronomy and … Read more
I’m watching barges go up the Rhine River. The precious, early morning hours before official tour activities begin are my favorite, no matter where I am. Still, the joy of sitting here, looking out at the castles on the Rhine? That defies description. By the … Read more
At each conference recently, I’ve found myself discussing the same quandary: how do we implement curriculum so that the arts occupy a central, not ancillary, position? Particularly in the realm of Classical education, we extol the value of the arts as a component of the … Read more
We’re supposed to know it, but we don’t. These words have resonated in my mind since hearing them said to me last Friday in our Krakow hotel. It was the last day of our Smithsonian Journeys “Week-in-Krakow” tour. The setting was a restored, golden-bricked medieval … Read more
Twice on Sunday I forgot to take a selfie. The first time came during a joyous afternoon reunion here in Latvia with two long-ago SMU students. Both fantastic musicians, these “kids” were members of our orchestra in the early 1990s, a time many refer to … Read more