For decades I used to ask my students where heaven was, then hell, and predictably they responded as one might expect, up and down respectively. Occasionally one would remark that there is no heaven or hell, but by and large their topographical sense was automatic, and conventional. There are, no doubt, many reasons for it. After all, I used to query them in the context of reading Homer's Iliad and Odyssey . The poet positions the gods on the heights of Mount Olympus, a formidable terrain of...

My husband and I have been entertaining guests since we were first together, going on forty-five years. I did the cooking during that time primarily, for many hundreds of guests by now, preparing no doubt many hundreds of meals. They talk these days about the difficulty of finding common ground across a fractured divide, but I can say with certainty that most people, no matter the politics, are quite particular eaters, though it depends.    My tour of kitchen duty didn't start at twenty-six...

Most years a birthday comes and goes as just another day. There's a bit more fuss in a milestone year, but as a rule the day passes with little fanfare other than a restaurant meal and store-bought cake. This year was noticeably different.    Some people relish the attention of their day. They even drop hints it's coming or are vocal about its approach. I'm not that way. Corny as it sounds I treasure the everyday; I make a point of appreciating it; the more mundane and productive, the more I...