Author: Ms. R.

The Christmas carol “Jingle Bells” was composed at the Simpson Tavern in Medford, Massachusetts in 1850 by James Pierpont (1822-1893). The tavern stood at the site which is now 19 High Street in Medford Square. The lyrics of the song tell of the sleigh rides held on Salem Street in the early 1800s….

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Churches of varying sizes can be seen throughout the islands of Seychelles. They are usually well looked after, often with small manicured gardens. It is, therefore, quite surprising to find an abandoned church in the outskirts of Victoria—even more so, considering that this church is nested in a populated area, next to a school, private houses, and a busy roundabout.  The roots of Christianity in Seychelles can be traced back to 1756, when France claimed the islands. As Seychelles……

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On a spring evening in 2019, Robin Will arrived at the Q Center, an LGBTQ+ community space in north Portland, with two heaping armfuls of scrapbooks from Jerry Weller, the late activist who helped spearhead the 1970s movement for gay liberation in the Pacific Northwest. Will was meeting up with four other community elders, all of whom witnessed the movement firsthand and many of whom appear in the photos tucked into the books as friends or co-conspirators of Weller…….

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Over 60,000 meticulously strung together pieces of seashells and corals decorate this stunning underwater-themed temple in the hills of Taiwan. Instead of the usual lion dog statues that preface more traditional temples, dragon head turtles are the guardians of the choice here. Located five miles from the sea, this shrine is an homage to the 18 disciples of Buddha, Matsu (the goddess of the sea), and a Buddhist monk named Ji Gong—a quirky monastic who drank profusely and ate……

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On a hill in the middle of Taipei, near the Tamsui River, there is a cluster of buildings so densely packed that it resembles a real-life version of the urban sprawl in Hayao Miyazaki’s Howl’s Moving Castle. Known as Treasure Hill, the cluster was once to be an illegal shantytown that housed over 200 military families in the 1960s and 1970s. Today, it is a community filled with art and artists. Because the buildings were so haphazardly constructed, it……

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This eight-foot (2.5 meters) tall sculpture stands at the corner of Maryport’s South Quay. The work of art showcases the town’s history from the founding of the Roman settlement of Alauna.  Originally known as Ellenfoot, the port grew rapidly in the 18th and 19th-centuries. The side of the sculpture facing the town includes references to the area’s mining, railway, and shipping history. The HMS Bounty mutiny led by Fletcher Christian, the harbor, and the lighthouse are also featured on……

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This story is excerpted and adapted from The Appalachian Trail: A Biography by Philip D’Anieri, published in June 2021 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt. On April 4, 1948, Army veteran Earl Shaffer set out from the southern end of the Appalachian Trail (AT) to, as he famously said, “walk the war out of my system.” When he finished at the northern terminus, Maine’s Mt. Katahdin, 124 days later, Shaffer became the first person known to have thru-hiked the 2,000 mile-plus……

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