Ralph Gardner News Today

Sixty Years Ago

Clifford Elmer Gardner passed away December 17, 2022, in McMinnville, Oregon. He was 95 years old. Clifford was born May 13, 1927, in Rainier, Oregon, the oldest of three ...

An editor once told me that she avoids stories about beloved stores and restaurants that are biting the dust. I can understand why. You almost know what the writer is going to say, the maudlin quotes from customers, the clichés.

When I hear the word “carnival” I think clowns, even though I harbor no particular affection for clowns. Never have. Fortunately, there won’t be any clowns at the first Columbia

These words by Winslow Homer in a letter to his brother Charles impressed me; they were written in 1895 on the eve of his 59th birthday and they’re part of

You may have gotten one in your mailbox or inbox, too. It’s a flier from the United States Postal Service announcing that June 5th through June 11th is National Dog Bite Awareness Week. I had no idea. I assumed every week was National Dog Bite Awareness Week. I was taught early on that you don’t pet a dog without the owner’s permission and then only after letting the pooch smell your hand.

My wife and I agreed that the salmon we bought from Zabar’s in Manhattan and had for dinner Wednesday night was tastier than the salmon we buy locally. There’s not a huge difference between one piece of farm-raised salmon and another – part of that flaky fish’s allure is that it’s predictable, rarely rising far above or falling far below your expectations. But the Zabar’s fish tasted fresher, subtly more flavorful.

I like to think of my first redwood encounters as an amuse bouche. After a few days in Napa we’re heading several hours north to two famous stands of coastal redwoods – The Avenue of the Giants at Redwood State Park and the Grove of the Titans at Jedediah Smith Redwoods State Park. As boastful as their names sound, I suspect the trees will more than live up to their billing.

I don’t typically read the labels on products, especially those I’m not planning to digest. But the label splashed across a newly purchased spray bottle of Windex was impossible to miss. “Bottle made of 100% OCEAN BOUND PLASTIC” it read.

Hugh Howard’s new book, “Architects of an American Landscape,” sounds like it would be a work of serious scholarship. Published by Grove Atlantic, it is a work of serious scholarship. But it also felt like a paid vacation, traveling back to the horse and buggy days of the 19th century through the nation’s transformation into a fledgling world power. That was due, in no small part, to the development of the railroad.