By Madeleine Johnson | March 7th, 2021 | “Notebook” An algorithm recently suggested that I learn about the Vikings. I took its advice and have just finished listening to the audio version of English archeologist Neil Price’s recent history of the Viking Age “Children of Ash and Elm: A History of the Vikings.” The algorithmic suggestion probably originated from my recent purchase of a history … Continue reading Rethinking the Vikings

By Madeleine Johnson | January 31st, 2021 | “Notebook”, Memory Lane I usually avoid mirrors. But one caught me unawares the other day. To my surprise, the person in I saw in it was not me but my mother. Who else’s knees sag that way or has hands spotted just so? No, this couldn’t be me. Yet it was. After a lifetime of rolling my … Continue reading When you become her

By Madeleine Johnson | December 29th, 2020 | “Notebook” The last 12 months have been no time for travel, with 2021 looking not much better. To avoid quarantine regulations, I have decided to opt for day-long trips I can take in a way that bypasses all regulations. Here’s how I imagine one such trip. 2 a.m. I arrive in an airport in some hot, populous … Continue reading The mind traveler

By Madeleine Johnson | December 3rd, 2020 | “Notebook” During his successful 2016 run for the White House, and well into the early part of his presidency, Donald Trump was compared to Italy’s former Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi so often the comparisons became a sort of journalistic genre. Commentators saw parallels between their media careers, their images as self-made men, and their womanizing. In truth, … Continue reading Don’t call me Trump

By Madeleine Johnson | November 7th, 2020 | “Notebook” Some years ago, President Barack Obama ruffled feathers when he used art history as an example of an unproductive — or at least unremunerative — academic credential. My B.A. and M.A. degrees in art history never did much for me financially, so I know what Obama was trying to say. It’s no secret an art historian’s … Continue reading On art and Elders

By Madeleine Johnson | October 3rd, 2020 | “Notebook” I grew up in Rockford, Illinois, in shouting distance of free-market guru Milton Friedman’s Chicago. The “Paleo-conservative” movement, focused largely on regionalism, national pride, and traditional values, originated in The Rockford Institute, a think tank started by local conservative activist and proto-“culture warrior” John Howard. My father and many other local leaders supported the Rockford Institute. … Continue reading Parsing a Republican past

by Madeleine Johnson | September 10th, 2020 | “Notebook” It was a few days ago that I noticed it in the garden. Welcomed by the sun’s heat, flashes of yellow and orange – Virginia creeper – had sneaked in among the green foliage. I looked at the calendar and noticed August 15th had come and gone, taking with it June’s lingering late evening light. In … Continue reading Turn, turn, turn

by Madeleine Johnson | July 30th, 2020 | “Notebook” Last time around I wrote about the pain of performing triage on a lifetime of possessions and my fear that discarding things would erase the people they belonged to. Since that piece, I realized that there might be an effective — and maybe better — way to remember these objects and the people associated with them. It’s too late … Continue reading Forwarding the Past

Three years ago I packed up the contents of my Milan home and moved back to the United States. For various reasons, the contents of my apartment remained in storage. The 2018 Genoa bridge collapse blocked access to that city’s port. Then came the coronavirus. These events, along with typical Italian delays, kept me separated from my belongings until three weeks ago, when they finally … Continue reading The Name of the Past

by Madeleine Johnson | June 4th, 2020 | “Notebook” As restrictions on lockdowns lift, those who have enjoyed the last few months in perpetual pajamas or sweatpants may be unhappy about returning to wearing their regular street or work clothes. But those who are worried don’t need to be. They can stay in their jim-jams forever, just like millions of people around the world. “Pajamas” … Continue reading The Garment District