A blog about food, history, data visualization, and more
(Disclosure: I received a discount on the International Food Blogger Conference (IFBC) registration fee in exchange for writing three posts about my experiences at the conference. All opinions are my own.) This is part 1 of a 2-part series on a visit to an olive grove and olive oil processing facility in Yolo County, California. The second […]
I was browsing through the amazing digital archives of the New York Public Library recently, looking for fun stuff to pin to my Slices of Blue Sky Pinterest boards, and I ran across an old postcard from Los Angeles that caught my attention. The photo isn’t much — it’s a pretty big Spanish-style house — […]
I find it easy to get lost in the New York Public Library’s Digital Collections, which contain hundreds of thousands of images and a massive collection of menus. One recent morning I was looking for something and stumbled into a large ‘box’ of early 20th century postcards from the Detroit Publishing Company. While browsing through […]
Wilshire Boulevard: Grand Concourse of Los Angeles, by Kevin Roderick (with research by J. Eric Lynxwiler) has been on my list for many years and I finally read it last month. On my handful of visits to Los Angeles, I have probably driven the entire length of Wilshire Boulevard, covering a lot of the same […]
During the research for my previous post about the Golden Gate, I wondered how and when the Golden Gate become the “official” name. What was the process for naming things in the 19th century? Did Fremont’s map for the U.S. Senate give “official” status to the name? Did the U.S. Government have a standing panel […]
Blood was running International Orange in the San Francisco Bay Area in 2012 because its most famous structure, the Golden Gate Bridge, turned 75 in May. Celebrations and commemorations are all over the place, including a multi-artist show called International Orange at Fort Point National Historical Site.* In the historic 19th century fort, sixteen artists […]
(Updated 11/27/16: fixed broken links, changed photo) During the long summer days, the hills to the east of San Francisco Bay (Alameda and Contra Costa County) are wonderful places to walk — not too hot and with remarkable views to the east, west, and north (until the fog rolls in, and then it’s grey in […]
The Edible Schoolyard, an educational garden and kitchen at Martin Luther King, Jr. Middle School in Berkeley, California, has been my path, so to speak, twice recently. The first time was a cover story in the East Bay Express. The second was an actual visit to the garden, my first visit ever. I wrote a […]