Evidently, many people avoid artichokes in grocery stores because of the mystery of how to sit down with one of these vegetables and actually eat it. In this short film, my mother, who was born and bred in California (the state where all American artichokes are grown) explains how to eat an artichoke. And, since I can never resist doing some historical research, viewers will also get some tidbits (tidbites?) about artichokes in days of...

10 Great Authors, 10 Unforgettable Adventures. With every Today’s Adventure post between August 1 and August 13, you can register to win the featured book and the grand prize of all 10 books. We’ll announce winners on August 14. You may enter today’s contest by leaving a comment on Susanna’s blog. Here’s Susanna: Nicola’s not looking for adventure. But when a client brings a family heirloom called “the...

The Fortunate Pilgrim by Mario Puzo My rating: 4 of 5 stars A novel about an Italian immigrant family living in Hell’s Kitchen New York during the 30s. Puzo based the main character of the mother on his own mother. I loved how Puzo said in the introduction that he also modeled the Godfather character after his mother. Was Marlon Brando aware of this? There seem to be surprisingly few novels about the Italian immigrant experience. This is...