January 12, 2021

Los Angeles Loved Walter Scott Or at least in the early 20th century, they did. Scottish writer Walter Scott, who lived from 1771 to 1832, penned historical tales of chivalry, romance, and derring-do so popular that settlers and developers named towns, streets, and neighborhoods for him throughout the English-speaking world. By the 1920s, Scott mania had largely faded. Yet it remained strong in L.A. for two very different reasons. For some, Scott’s work provided an appealing link to a familiar but imagined past. For others, it promoted an ideal of Saxon virtue that was under threat in the jazz-age metropolis.  READ MORE → Signs of America Think of your last road trip. You likely saw signs of all kinds for businesses, public safety messages, accident memorials, advertisements for worms, and, of course, political campaigns. Portland-based photographer Brendon Burton sees the signs, too, but he’s looking for a specific species on his road-based safaris—mostly the hand-painted, graffitied, dashed-off, the unusually juxtaposed. For Burton, these signs are a way to explore America and understand its many nuanced facets. READ MORE → 9 Places to Find Calm No sooner was 2020 in the rearview that 2021 brought fresh reasons to be on edge. There’s still hope on the horizon, though no one’s blaming you if it will take a while to shake the mental cobwebs of the last year and change. Here are nine places around the world—from gardens to labyrinths to shrines—where one might be able to take a deep breath, refresh, and find an oasis of calm in a world that just doesn’t seem to let up. READ MORE → → FROM THE ARCHIVES The World’s Worst Sandwich Everyone has their own opinions on what sandwich is the worst, but few (if any) can top the comically unsavory Raines sandwich. Playwright Eugene O’Neill described it as “an old desiccated ruin of dust-laden bread and mummified ham or cheese,” and that doesn’t even include the times it was made of rubber. Unappetizing as it sounds, the sandwich was everywhere in New York at the turn of the 20th century. Why? To evade pre-Prohibition drinking laws. READ MORE → DAMASCUS, OREGON Temple of Oculus Anubis The Temple of Oculus Anubis is the unofficial moniker of a private Oregon residence, and it’s easy to see how it got its name. At the end of a cul-de-sac, flanked by mossy stone pyramids, the gate towers 30 feet over one’s head. Gaze through the bars, and you’ll spot a statue of Sekhmet, the lion-headed solar goddess of healing, lurking within the trees. Given all the rumors swirling around the house’s reclusive owners, people have dubbed it the creepiest house in Oregon. READ MORE → Tips for Enduring Winter Due to Antarctica’s extreme winter, which includes four months of total darkness, polar explorers endured intense confinement in close quarters for long periods of time. How did the Antarctic explorers of the early 1900s survive tedium in the time long before the Internet? Read on for some tips that might help you get through the long days ahead. READ MORE → PARIS, FRANCE Grave of Antoine-Augustin Parmentier If you amble through Paris’s popular Pere-Lachaise Cemetery, among tombs of celebrated philosophers, singers, and playwrights, you may discover a grave surrounded by potato plants. If an admirer has stopped by recently, there may even be a tuber resting atop the tombstone. You have found the final resting place of Antoine-Augustin Parmentier, history’s greatest potato promoter. READ MORE →