PicoBlog

Watch the Fight As he stepped into the ring to fight Ray Mercer under the bright lights in Atlantic City, Donald Trump and Marla Maples unmissable on the hard camera, Larry Holmes was supposed to be finished. At 42, he was more than a decade removed from his “greatest” triumph, a sad, anti-climatic victory over a doddering Muhammad Ali to win The Ring Magazine version of the heavyweight championship and officially take his place among the immortals.

I was always going to be a coffee drinker. On early summer mornings, my mom and her sisters would congregate in the small kitchen in Rome, drinking their cups of espresso, the windows thrown open to let in the still-cool breeze. I would sit on one of their laps—usually my mom’s or my Zia Elsa’s, the two coffee diehards in the family—and watch as they dipped a silver spoon into their cup and held it over the sugar bowl, tipping the spoon ever so slightly so that a single drop of hot coffee would land in the sugar.

Last Friday, while I was trying to decide what neighborhood to cover next, New York experienced its largest earthquake since 1884. After an hour of NPR, I soon felt qualified to opine on the volatility of the Ramapo Fault zone. Armed with my new geological expertise, I took a look at my five-borough map, and one name immediately stood out: Graniteville, Staten Island. I knew nothing about the neighborhood, but it seemed like fate.

If you know me, you know I am PASSIONATE about functional shoes. NYC for 20 years + an ankle injury + life has made me despise that feeling when you can’t focus because all you can think about is how much your feet hurt, or your heel is being fully rubbed off by unforgiving leather. Beyond that, I find the best design is usually the simplest when it comes to shoes for everyday.

I’m going to take you through the process of a graphic novel in a series of posts. This is from my perspective, as a writer and artist who makes fantasy books for middle grade and young adult readers - but hopefully it will be helpful even if you’re interested in making a different kind of book! Taking about writing is easier than talking about art, for me, but I’m going to give it my best shot to talk about…

Like the rest of New York City, Gravesend was originally Lenape territory. The Lenape populated the coastline of New York, New Jersey, and Delaware. Henry Hudson was the first known European to set foot in the area in the fall of 1609 and claimed the land for his employers, the Dutch East India Company. Gravesend comes from the Dutch words Grafes and Ande, which combined mean “end of the grove.”

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Greater white-fronted goose (Anser albifrons) in flight at the Llano Seco Unit of the Sacramento National Wildlife Refuge, south of Chico, California. Photo by Frank Schulenburg.Wednesday morning I heard a flock of geese with a call that was a higher pitch than I was used to from Canada Geese. It turns out there were three flocks of Greater white-fronted geese. They migrate north from February through May, so I am taking this as the first sign of spring!

Welcome to ingredient, where once a month I take a deep dive into some of my favourite seasonal and store cupboard ingredients. This month I’m focusing on my favourite spice: Green Cardamom. Sultry, aromatic and uniquely perfumed, it’s the perfect place for infusing the scent of elsewhere into dinners, desserts and bakes. Additionally, at the bottom of this post you’ll find my recipe for Cardamom Panna Cotta with Clementine Jelly which both serves as a primer on the thing of sheer beauty that is created when you infuse cardamom pods in milk or cream, and as the perfect make-ahead dessert as the entertaining season is finally upon us.