An online home where I write, teach, publish, and explore
By Michael Downing A Mausoleum that Doubles as a Church Westminster Abbey is a full-blown mausoleum that doubles as an active Anglican church. It's insanely beautiful and holds a place of massive importance in the history and tradition of the British Empire. I actually knew very little about the Abbey before we went. I knew... Continue Reading →
By Michael Downing Carnaby Street Located in London's West End, Carnaby Street features more than 100 shops and more than 60 bars and restaurants. The fashion side includes Birkenstock, Cole Buxton, Izipizi, Paul Smith, and Scotch and Soda. Restaurants include Dehesa, Inko Nito, Polpo, and Tapas Brindisa. Click here for Carnaby Magazine 2023. Shopper's heaven.... Continue Reading →
By Michael Downing Covent Garden Covent Garden: So nice we went twice. Located southeast of Soho, Covent Garden is famous for its central square, shopping, souvenirs, food, and the Royal Opera House (plus about half-a-million people, or so it seemed). We initially wandered over on Wednesday afternoon (it was reasonably crowded) and then again on... Continue Reading →
By Michael Downing The Red-Eye to Heathrow We took the red eye out of Newark and landed at Heathrow at 7 am, disoriented and quite a bit depersonalized. A friendly woman on the people-mover noticed our Hokas and modeled hers. "Those are cool," Jackie said. Hers are purple; Jackie’s are pink; mine are black. “I... Continue Reading →
Katherine North created this artwork for The Keystone Newspaper. It is published here with her permission under Attribution-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported (CC BY-SA 3.0).
By Michael Downing Chat GPT Logo. Source: ChatGPT, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons I used to travel to San Jose regularly to cover the tech sector. One day a software engineer told me over a doughnut that there was a growing recognition that silicon (aka “silicate materials”)—the second-most frequently occurring element on Earth (after oxygen)—was... Continue Reading →
The floor tiles inside the PA State Capitol were made by Henry Chapman Mercer. There are almost 400 picture tiles representing 254 images and is the largest single collection of Mercer tiles in the world.
We traveled to the PA State Capitol on Thursday, Feb. 23 to watch the PA House consider a bill that would help childhood sexual abuse survivors seek justice from their abusers. The images below are from the Capitol building.
My wife, Jacklyn, created this artwork for the August Wilson Journal back in 2017. I am publishing it here with her permission under Attribution-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported (CC BY-SA 3.0).
My Writing Wanderland 