How the other half lived

On this day in 1870, Jacob Riis stepped off a ship from Denmark to begin a new life in New York. The immigration office found him a job in western Pennsylvania, but news of a war in Europe prompted him to soon return to New York City to volunteer to serve in the...

Green Beer

This month, in honor of St. Patrick’s Day, I’m going to write about Irish things, or more accurately, Irish-American things since the holiday is really an American one. Regardless of the celebration’s origins as an Irish Catholic day of prayer, it is now a day when...

Looking for Hell

The other day I went looking for Hell. I was in New York and had a few hours to kill so I checked the map for things near my hotel and I saw we were near the neighborhood labeled “Hell’s Kitchen.”  I’d been reading about the 19th Century tenements of the Five Points...

Bolting to New York

When I considered taking a Bolt bus from Baltimore to New York, I looked online and read such a mixed bag of reviews I didn’t know what to think. Bolt was either a revolution or just revolting, depending on who you read. So as I was getting ready to leave, I decided...