Recently, Kalamazoo's historic State Theatre celebrated its 90th anniversary with a party - complete with towering cake, artists in residence, and a Yelp Kalamazoo event that included a very special backstage tour. 

Do you follow one of my favorite authors? David Downie, a native San Franciscan, lived in New York, Providence, Rome, and Milan before moving to Paris in the mid-80s. He divides his time between France and Italy. His travel, food, and arts features have appeared in leading print and on-line publications including Bon Appétit, Gourmet, Saveur, Epicurious.com, and Gault & Millau, the premier French food guide. He is the author of over a dozen nonfiction books, including the highly acclaimed Paris, Paris and A Passion for Paris.

China: a place both ancient and modern, well known and unknown, distant, different: a powerful contemporary nation that is still little known and even less understood by most people in the west.

The Library of Congress has put the papers of Alexander Hamilton online for the first time in their original format. 

Montenegró is one of the best kept secrets of the Balkan region. Despite being sandwiched between the summer hot spots of Greece and Croatia, it remains relatively untouched by tourism. It’s hard to see why, when Montenegró boasts 294 kilometers of breathtakingly blue Adriatic coastline, stunning limestone mountain cliffs reaching for hundreds of meters, real Eastern-European culture, and old towns with all the history and ambiance you could ask for. 

“Welcome to 1816.” Magdelaine La Framboise’s spirit greeted our arrival to the island she had loved. The Odawa-French fur trader, who had fascinated me for years, invited my husband, Bob, and me to stay at the Harbour View Inn. In its prior life, the current B&B had been her home. Its construction was overseen by her son-in-law, Captain Benjamin Pierce, brother to future President Franklin Pierce. The gentle breezes whispered Magdelaine's words, “I apologize that I can’t spend more time with you.

The rainforest often seems like it is another world - full of animals, plants, and cultures that are unfamiliar to us. Yet something about this area draws us to learn more about it. I've recently read an extraordinary book that documents one journalist's many years among the people of Central America, in the cradle of the Maya civilization.

In 1926, America celebrated the 150th anniversary of its Declaration of Independence. To mark the occasion, citizens of Poland – more than 5.5 million of them – signed a unique birthday card, The Polish Declarations of Admiration and Friendship. Now, all 111 volumes containing more than 30,000 pages – many beautifully illustrated or accompanied by photographs – are digitized and accessible on the Library of Congress website.

Those that live in the area and travel along Rt 9W, Rt 218, or Rt 9D see it every day. Most wonder, “what the heck is out there?”