In Haight-Ashbury, once the center of the 1960s Hippy Flower Power Movement, I came upon a hawker selling unique chicken-claw pipes. I purchased one and held it up in the light as he passed me a tape of Ry Cooder, the famous slide guitarist who taught Keith Richards a special open tuning so it would be “easier to play on smack.” And why it’s such a bitch to figure out Rolling Stones songs in the first place. This is what San Francisco is like. Never to be called either “San… Read more

John M. Edwards remembers the bon temps of his college days in New Orleans, including live music, po boys, and cameos by Frank Zappa and Quentin Tarantino. * * * At the Napoleon House—an atmospheric inn where the “Yats” (New Orleans elite) once hatched a nefarious plot in the inner courtyard sanctum to return their Emperor Napoleon Bonaparte to the so-called Louisiana Purchase (brokered between the Little Colonel and Thomas Jefferson for only several mil)—I sat munching on a… Read more

Ladurée in Paris. Pierre Hermé in Paris. Sprüngli in Zurich. They are among the world’s most revered macaroon makers. I’d now like to add another to the list: Pistacia Vera in Columbus, Ohio. Yes, I know, it’s hard to imagine that a pastry shop in a modest American city like Columbus could compete for excellence with the venerable pastry houses of Europe, but for my taste I have yet to find a macaroon that could compare with those from Pistacia Vera. They were my first macaroons,… Read more