Author Archives: Sparky
Worcester Art Museum
The Worcester Art Museum will never be put in the same category at The Louvre or even Boston’s Museum of Fine Arts. However, for an art museum located in a small city, it isn’t bad. Better than I expected. Let’s start with the building itself. It is rather grand. Neo-gothic, I think, with a sunlit … Continue reading
“The Woods” by Harlan Coben
Published by Signet, 2008. Copyright 2007 by Harlan Coben. I usually leave my summary rating to the end, but in this case I will put it right up front: 9.5 out of 10. This may be the most satisfying mystery that I have read in many years. The story centers on the disappearance in the … Continue reading
Still puzzling
Since leaving Florida – and pretty much while there all winter – the only jigsaw puzzles that I have done were the computer ones. These are 300 pieces with all the pieces correctly oriented. They are fun, but they are a shadow of a real jigsaw puzzle of 500 pieces or more. So in addition … Continue reading
“Skulduggery in the Latin Quarter” by David Benjamin
Last Kid Books, April 2019. Copyright 2018 by David Benjamin. If you have read any of Benjamin’s other novels – in particular, Three’s a Crowd which is also a mystery and is also (partially) set in Paris – you will be struck by his growth as an author. While the characters in Three’s a Crowd … Continue reading
New Salem Old Home Day
New Salem MA is a *very* small town – fewer than 1,000 residents. The center of the town consists of a few public buildings and maybe 20 houses. There just isn’t much there. But if you ever lived there you are invited to return for the annual “Old Home Day”. Presumably it is intended to … Continue reading
Cloning our life
When Jett and I left Flagler Beach, headed north on Amtrak, we took as many of our belongings as we could carry in one large suitcase and four small shopping bags. A few days after we arrived, I returned to Florida to return the RV to its home base and to collect more of our … Continue reading
Worcester’s EcoTarium
In an effort to get to better know the city where I am doing time this summer – and to, perhaps, make this blog just a little less depressing – I made a brief visit to Worcester’s EcoTarium yesterday. TripAdvisor ranks it as the #2 attraction in Worcester (the #1 attraction, the Worcester Art Museum, … Continue reading
Our family reunited
For a month Jett and I have survived without Rusty. Jett’s son Josh took him from Florida to Virginia so that we could get north on the train (where dogs are not allowed) and took very good care of him. He returned him to us last Friday by driving up from Virginia after we took … Continue reading
“Dragon” by Clive Cussler
Copyright 1990 by Clive Cussler Enterprises, Inc., published by Pocket Books. Another Clive Cussler adventure yarn featuring the intrepid Dirk Pitt. As usual, Dirk gets the girl. Two girls in this case. The interesting part about that is that they have lunch together at the end of the book, as they are tipping a glass … Continue reading
First chemo
Jett had her first chemotherapy infusion on Monday. She approached it with a great deal of trepidation. She had, of course, heard all the horror stories of violent upchucking and generally feeling like crap. But she was committed to doing a minimum of one treatment, so Monday morning she got showered and dressed, took a … Continue reading