If you lived in the age of the explorers, would you have had the courage to sail across the ocean on a ship like this one? I toured the Maritime Museum of San Diego on our trip to California last week, and as I stood on the deck of the San Salvador, a replica of a Spanish Galleon from 1542, I asked myself that question. The ship is less than 100 feet long and only 32 feet wide, and seemed much … [Read more...]

I watched PBS Masterpiece’s new program, To Walk Invisible, last night. It dramatizes a small slice of the life of three sisters, their destructive brother, and clergyman father. These sisters lived in obscurity for most of their lives, though now their names are famous and their works required reading in schools, printed in countless editions, and brought to life in several film adaptations: … [Read more...]