Archive - August 2020

    National Agent Orange Day is August 10. While COVID-19 races through the U.S. population, another invisible killer continues to rage among our already endangered population. Agent Orange continues to contaminate and kill civilians and veterans more than 50 years after spraying. Two Marines, Brent MacKinnon and Sandy Scull, have published a personal account detailing damage done to both body and soul: Agent Orange Roundup: Living with a Foot in Two Worlds. This tells of the loss of innocence, betrayal and final acceptance of Stage 4 cancer 50 years after their tour of duty. The Department of Veteran Affairs estimates over 300,000 Vietnam Veterans have died from the herbicidal defoliant known as Agent Orange; The Vietnamese casualties are in the millions. This collection of powerful art, prose and poetry captures their journey from the home front, into the meat grinder and the long struggle for recovery. Lt. Charles “Sandy” . . .

  It’s 1909, and Teddy Roosevelt is not only hunting in Africa, he’s being hunted. The safari is a time of discovery, both personal and political. In Africa, Roosevelt encounters Sudanese slave traders, Belgian colonial atrocities, and German preparations for war. He reconnects with a childhood sweetheart, Maggie, now a globe-trotting newspaper reporter sent by William Randolph Hearst to chronicle safari adventures and uncover the former president’s future political plans. But James Pierpont Morgan, the most powerful private citizen of his era, wants Roosevelt out of politics permanently. Afraid that the trust-busting president’s return to power will be disastrous for American business, he plants a killer on the safari staff to arrange a fatal accident. Roosevelt narrowly escapes the killer’s traps while leading two hundred and sixty-four men on foot through the savannas, jungles, and semi-deserts of Kenya, Tanzania, Uganda, Congo, and Sudan.   Jimmy, quit telling tall tales!” was my . . .

  In Yogurt Culture: A Global Look at How to Make, Bake, Sip, and Chill the World’s Creamiest, Healthiest Food, award-winning food writer Cheryl Sternman Rule presents 115 flavorful recipes, taking yogurt farther than the breakfast table, lunchbox, or gym bag. Rule strips yogurt of its premixed accessories and brings it back to its pure, wholesome essence. In chapters like Flavor, Slurp, Dine, and Lick, she pairs yogurt not just with fruit but with meat, not just with sugar but with salt, not just with herbs but with fragrant spices whose provenance spans the globe. She provides foolproof, step-by-step instructions for how to make yogurt, Greek yogurt, and labneh at home, though all of her recipes can also be prepared with commercial yogurt. Rule explores yogurt from every angle, explaining how to read a label, visiting producers large and small, and gaining entry to the kitchens of cooks from around the . . .