The guided one-mile journey takes participants past buildings steeped in decades of dramatic events and reported hauntings while at the same dropping tons of fascinating history of San Jose. The experience began under the prominent arch at Paseo de San Carlos and wound through areas tied to everything from Wild West saloons and brothels to brewery tragedies to sorrows at San Jose State University.
The Boston Public Library, which dates back to 1848, features a beautiful central building in Copley Square with grand murals and fascinating exhibitions. McKim Courtyard, situated right in the middle, provides a perfect place to take a peaceful moment to relax before or after strolling through the stacks. The best part is that the library is free and open to the public.
In the winter of 2021, as the pandemic pressed life inward, Jenny McBride and Jo Gray began doing what so many did to stay sane: they went for walks. Each day, the couple looped through their Newton neighborhood, circling the same streets, passing the same houses, nodding at the same passersby. At first, the walks felt like freedom, a way to stretch their legs and explore beyond the walls of their duplex.
'I started crying,' Azar told me one afternoon last summer, as we sat on the sun-drenched porch of Gifford, overlooking the brick courtyard. Guests popped over to bid him hello, and he gently directed them over the lobby bar for a moment of respite from the heat. He continued the story: 'I was like, 'This is actually why I'm doing this.'
While working on a graduate school paper on the mystical powers of coral, gemologist Anna Rasche ventured deep into the archives of the Cooper Hewitt Smithsonian Design Museum's library. Coral is the most powerful material to ward off the evil eye-a belief Italians have held since ancient times. Romans often gifted newborns coral amulets to prevent sickness and bad luck.
Cupid gets his main-character moment this weekend. We asked New Yorker staffers to help build a playlist befitting his romantic mission. For a classic piece of nineties Brit pop, Oasis's " Slide Away" is basically an absurdly romantic ballad of plain devotion and yearning-which "Wuthering Heights" has established as the emotions of the season. May your Valentine's Day be all about both!- Noreen Plabutong
It started as a sworn secret between eight New England artists. In 2003, Michael Townsend and seven friends moved into the Providence Place Mall. They'd discovered an empty 750 square-foot loft space. They hauled up furniture - a couch, a PlayStation, TV, waffle-maker. Hauled up two tons of cinder blocks for an apartment wall. In 2007, mall security discovered the apartment. Townsend was arrested and banned from the mall. He named no names.