Michele’s Musings
Traveling
Vienna and Beyond
Vienna was bookended by two fabulous meals. The first night we ate tafelspitz at Plachutta’s restaurant. This is a dinner of boiled meat served with horseradish. For our version, the meal came to the table in the pot. First you ladle out a bowl of the broth and...
Raison d’Etre for our Trip this Year
Some of the readers of this blog do not know my husband, Gary Zimmerman, so I will introduce him to you. A retired chemistry professor and university CEO, he spends his retirement running a genealogy library. In addition he has some personal clients and one of those...
Hunting for Mozart in Salzburg
You have to love a city where they serve prosecco with salami and pickles for breakfast. Salzburg is a charming city under any circumstances, devoted to Mozart and his fellow musicians, Even the Archbishop Dresses for the Festival but we happened to arrive for St....
Bavarian Alps
We traveled to Bavaria for a very special event, one I must absorb and turn over in my mind before I write about it. As part of that voyage back in history, we spent four days in the Bavarian Alps. Here’s a short photo journal of that trip. We stopped in Mittenwald,...
MÜNCHEN
--You know you’re traveling when your body clock keeps saying it’s time to sleep, it’s time to eat, and the times don’t correspond at all with where you are. --You know you’re in a foreign country when you go to church and the priest’s reflection is incomprehensible...
Southern European Meditations, Part Six: The Fine Arts
A Singing Culture One Sunday, we went to a neighborhood church in Spain, to find there were no instruments to accompany the hymns. This was a bit disappointing because the church had a beautiful organ (at least to the eye) that sat untouched. The voices of the...
Southern European Meditations, Part Five: Parlez-Vous?
MY FAVORITE SPANISH WORDS Gaudi curved windows at Casa Battlò (where we paid Jubilados rate) No Molestar – for “Do not Disturb” Jubilados – (as in the Latin, jubilate, for “Rejoice”) used for Retired People (and thank you to Spain for providing discounts at tourist...
Southern European Meditations, Part Four: A Catholic Tourist in Spain
The ritual of the Mass in the Catholic Church has a uniformity throughout the world. The prayers follow in a particular order, and if you are visiting a cathedral you can pop your head into a side chapel and know within a minute exactly where the priest is in the...
Southern European Meditations, Part Three: Money Talks
(This is written with apologies to my wonderful economics professor David Jobson at Keystone College, so many years ago. If I have misunderstood or forgotten any of the lessons you taught me, I regret that.) Solution to the Economic Problem in Southern Europe In...
Southern European Meditations, Part Two: What to Wear
INTERNATIONAL CHIC I live in a part of the country that prides itself on being “natural.” The result is that Northwestern women are not recognized internationally for their fashion, especially not for their hairstyles. In Paris I was stunned by the wonderful haircuts....
Southern European Meditations, Part One: Feeding the Body and Soul
PARIS We are waiting in line at a boulangerie. A mother buys two long baguettes and hands them to her son while she pays her bill. He sneaks a quick peek at her, notices her distraction, grabs one of the baguettes, rips off about six inches and starts to gnaw away....
Barcelona
From the air Barcelona looks like a series of gift boxes, appropriate for a city that makes you feel like every day is your birthday. Fanciful sights await you if you just open the boxes. The top of every building is crowned with ornaments. And there is plenty of...
Andalucia – Part One
SEVILLA, ESPAña Seville is modern; it is steeped in history. Seville’s soul is Catholic; it has a Moorish face. Seville is quiet; it is energetic. Seville is warm in climate; its people are warm and engaging. Seville is safe; it is charming. During the week the...
Andalucia – Part Two
GRANADA We went to a gypsy cave in Sacromonte, on the outskirts of Granada one evening for a flamenco show. No castanets, no partners. Just one guitar, two singers, four dancers, and a complicated pattern of hand clapping, but there is no experience in this entire...
Andalucia – Part Three
MÁLAGA Picasso only lived here until he was nineteen, but the city tries to make the most of this happenstance. Picasso Selling Tapas Gary Hanging Out with Picasso The museums in Malaga obviously do not house Picasso’s best works and we found the interactive museum of...
Reading
A Book for the Coronavirus Times
At the end of last year, I read The Humans by Matt Haig, and it still haunts me. Not in an ominous way, but more like the dictionary definition of haunt, “to remain with.” This novel won’t let me go, won’t let me ignore it. The book’s message is even more...
Capital Dames
Cokie Roberts has written about women from various periods of American history. Her most recent book, Capital Dames, tells the story of women in Washington, D.C. around the Civil War era. I had never considered how fearful the people of D.C. were during that time...
Benjamin Franklin and his Sister Jane
I am indulging in Jill Lepore’s Book of Ages: The Life and Opinions of Jane Franklin a second time. As is the case with many beautifully written books, there are different things that grab my attention on this reading, little details I missed before. One tale of...
Lesson from J.A. Jance
J.A. Jance’s popularity was evident yesterday at the Redmond Library. A room full of fans, almost all women, came to hear her talk about her new book Dance of the Bones. In addition to talking about the origins of her book and how she came to combine two of her...
Women in World War II
Kathryn Atwood’s book Women Heroes of World War II is a story of the strength of women in even the most terrifying circumstances. The book’s subtitle explains the content: 26 Stories of Espionage, Sabotage, Resistance, and Rescue. Women from seven European countries...
The Girls of Atomic City
When I was in college my friend Jim invited me to his home and introduced me to his aunt. Over a glass of scotch, “because it’s five o’clock somewhere,” she regaled us with her experiences as an engineer on the railroad during World War II, when women filled jobs...
Persistence Persists – Nellie Cornish
One hundred years ago a woman Martha Graham described as a “plump little lady with the dynamism of a rocket” founded the Cornish School in Seattle. Today it is a college of the arts, but in its beginnings all ages were nurtured there. Nellie Cornish believed that the...
A Fighting Chance by Elizabeth Warren
Elizabeth Warren’s A Fighting Chance is must reading for all American citizens but especially for mothers, for dog lovers, and for anyone who thinks they have gotten a raw deal from those who control this country’s economy. The book is like a rolling ocean wave. It...
Women’s Hands in Meek’s Cutoff
Living in the West has peaked my interest in the women who came across our country in wagon trains, and my curiosity about their lives drew me to the movie Meek’s Cutoff. It is the story of a small group of westward-ho adventurers who wander, lost in the Oregon...
The Feminine Mystique
When The Feminine Mystique by Betty Friedan was published in 1963 women who read it gave copies to their friends. Similarly, a friend loaned me A Strange Stirring by Stephanie Coontz, a recent book about the influence of The Feminine Mystique. While the title of...
Wenches and History
History is not what happens around us. It is the things remembered by those who write it down. While reading Wench by Dolen Perkins-Valdez, this fact struck me full force once again. This novel, about the relationships between slaves, is set in the...
Mrs. Nixon as Archetype
The book Mrs. Nixon: A Novelist Imagines a Life provoked my thinking about women’s stories. I read the book because I was intrigued by the title, imagining an autobiography with an imaginative twist. I was surprised to find that Mrs. Nixon was simply the...
Succeeding in the Seventeenth Century
I read Gillian Bagwell’s The Darling Strumpet, historical fiction about Nell Gwynn, an actress in the seventeenth century who was also mistress to Charles II. Nell used her body and beauty, along with her wit and charm, to gain both positions. My next book, about...
Reflecting
Lacrime per Venezia
It is difficult to drive and cry at the same time. And it was all Sylvia Poggioli’s fault. I admit that when I first saw the pictures of the flooding in Venice, I did not pay much attention. Every year at this time, water flows into the lower-lying areas of...
Mourning the Buddha
Father Gary Morelli died last week. He was one of many priests in this country, in his Church, and yet he was “one.” He was singular. He stood alone. When I moved to Washington state, my husband and I bought a house,...
Democratic Lessons
When I was a child, my mother came into my bedroom one summer night and gently shook me awake. In the moonlight creeping through the Venetian blinds, I saw her finger across her lips in that universal symbol of silence. She took my hand and...
Becky Beck, Woman or Anarchist?
An article in the Columbiamagazine, produced by the Washington State Historical Society, caught my eye: “Targeted for Deportation: Immigrant Labor Radical Becky Beck. . .” Intriguing words to grab attention, the story of Rebecca “Becky” Beck. I’ll probably get a...
Citizen of the World: Yo Yo Ma’s Road to Peace
I was seated in the center of the auditorium, perfectly placed, due to the grace of a gracious benefactor. As the crowd poured into every available seat to hear Yo Yo Ma, the din of conversation remained reverential, a soft buzzing as in a holy...
Perceptions of Family
Most of November was graced by time with family. It made me think about how those connections bind us together and enrich our lives. The month of November began with a special time, a trip I made with my brother to San Juan Island. We visited the sites prominent...
Prohibition: Part Two – Women on the Frontline
As soon as the prohibition of alcohol went into effect in this country, some enterprising citizens found their way around it. Unfortunately, many of them were major criminals and this country experienced a crime wave that raged in the streets. Law...
Prohibition: Part One – Votes for Women
Fortunately, we made it to the MOHAI (Museum of History and Industry) exhibit on “American Spirits: The Rise and Fall of Prohibition” when the tour came to Seattle. I learned more the impact women had on the enactment of the two amendments to the Constitution...
A Woman’s World in 1960
Offbeat is a website with slide shows, surrounded by ads. Sometimes they are clever art, sometimes historical facts, sometimes the inevitable cat pictures. In order to grab attention, they often have eye-catching titles, like “30 Terrifying Mythical Monsters that...
Mark Kelly, Husband
In the days of my young adulthood women were identified in conjunction with their husbands. For example, a newspaper might mention “Mary Brown, wife of John Brown.” Times have changed and many women stand in their own right, without reference to husbands or partners,...
What a Soccer Star Looks Like
In a recent issue of Time, Alex Morgan was the subject of the magazine’s featured interview. Even those readers like myself who don’t usually keep up with soccer, might have heard her name recently. The United States soccer team has just won the World Cup...
Keeping Things in Perspective
We are remodeling our kitchen and family room—and have been for two months now. It was a gut-and-start-over process. Our living and dining rooms are filled with boxes and furniture, all under plastic, and we have been relegated to the upstairs. The guest bedroom is...
Women’s Share is Growing: Is it Enough?
According to a report just issued by the United Nation’s International Labour Organization (ILO), women’s representation in leadership of the workforce is growing. The number of businesses owned or managed by women is increasing, with women heading 30% of businesses...
Women Movie Producers
I almost missed the most intriguing story in the October 10 issue of Entertainment Weekly. The cover drew my attention to Katy Sagal’s “Don’t you DARE!” look. Then, in the foreground, I stared into the squint in Charlie Hunnam’s eyes and noted the smoke from the...
A Prayer For Military Families
Every day I post a Woman of Note on this blog and once a week I post a biography of a First Woman To. . .During almost six months I have posted 163 daily Women of Note and 26 biographies. Ten of those Women of Note were women whose accomplishments were as members of...