Monthly Archives: March 2014

ursula lecoeur

Milk Punch, A Soothing Wake Me Up

Helen reporting. Martinique on Magazine Street in New Orleans makes a powerful wake-me-up drink—Milk Punch. This mix of milk, vanilla, bourbon or brandy—your choice—with a sprinkling of nutmeg is delicious. It’s the very same intoxicating beverage heroine Renee Desselle enjoys at the Collins Garden Party in The Willing Widow. The competition for William’s attention is […]

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ursula lecoeur

Were the 1880s the Golden Age of the Dog?

Reader Charles Padgett asked what sort of pets Americans owned during Victorian times. Short answer—birds, dogs and cats—in that order. Settlers arrived in America with dogs, cats and a penchant for caging songbirds. The first two  served useful purposes on the farm. Caged birds provided entertainment indoors. By the second half of the 19th century, […]

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