(Note: This article was originally published in the Chicago Tribune on April 19, 2023.) I guess I shouldn’t have been surprised by the...

I counted out a sizable bet and slid it across the green felt toward the three aces face-up in the middle of the table. Then I rested my...

The “in the round” show is a staple of Nashville entertainment. Sometimes called a guitar pull, and often performed in a row rather than...

I was 8,600 miles from home and the bridal party was taking advantage of the afternoon sun for group pictures, so I used the delay to...

A hectic day of travel and a long, stressful night retrieving a lost suitcase had me in a fitful sleep. My mind raced from one thought to...

Two days in Florence, birthplace of the so-called Renaissance, and an extra day in Rome visiting St. Peter’s Basilica in the Vatican, led...

“You attend to the pancetta,” Fulvia said, as she walked through the open kitchen door into her sun-drenched yard. “I am going to the...

Outside on the busy sidewalk, groups of loud teenagers wandered past. Italian business people strode from one appointment to the next, or...

If Florida had secret beaches guarded by limestone cliffs, vineyards sliding down to 900-year-old stone walls, lovely, zig-zagging...

Good luck if you are the city after Paris on a European trip. The deck is stacked. We are now in Dublin, where the answer to the Eiffel...

We have landed in Le Marais, our neighborhood in Paris for the next week. It’s an Airbnb apartment three floors up from a street which,...

We'll cross Europe slowly on our way to a Thanksgiving wedding in India.

A new railing at a summer cottage brings thoughts of simple things that are made to last.

I am not what the experts call a fitness buff. I consider myself reasonably active, biking and hiking regularly; walking for a round of...

It’s so wonderful when an artist you’ve been wanting to see for years comes through with a killer show. Such was the case with the great...

Shawn Colvin is joining the growing list of musical elders trotting out anniversary concerts, offering a song-for-song acoustic replay of...

Last minute live music decisions in Nashville rarely disappoint. In this case we stumbled on a gem; an art gallery performance by Aida...

There is a certain kind of brand new music that sounds like it’s always been there. We caught some of it at the Bluebird Café Sunday...

By JOHN CARPENTER When it comes to excuses for a guys weekend, the NCAA men’s basketball tournament is as good as it gets. We can safely...

By Mary Carpenter Escuche. Preparar. Esperanza. These were among the handful of Portuguese words I could make out during the sermon at...

By JOHN CARPENTER It’s a summer game, of course. But golf was really made for the fall. Gone are the muddy fairways of April and the...

By JOHN CARPENTER Bruce Roper leaned over the dusty workbench and carefully placed two slender, hand-hewn lengths of spruce into the...