Field Notes Premium Edition

A bird in the hand? Two in the bush? Or a pig in a poke?  Seems like the appropriate collection of possibilities when folks get to chatting about Social Security. Either take it as soon as you’re eligible…or wait a few years for a bigger payout…or just forget the whole shebang because the system is [Read More] …

“Could we live there?” My wife posed that question in a video chat we had last weekend. “There” is Malta, where I’m on a research trip. She couldn’t tag along on my adventure this time, but she continued from afar the game we play in every city we visit: Could we see ourselves living there? [Read More] …

Why I Don’t Miss the Suburban-Home, Three-Car Lifestyle  The church bells are ringing to mark the death of another hour in Pjazza San Guzepp in the little village of Qala on the Maltese island of Gozo.   Feels like it’s 8 p.m. Or 10 p.m. Who knows? Time seems ephemeral here as diners, some sitting at tables literally in the street, spend a few hours chatting and sampling wine and pasta in the cool evening air.  Dinner [Read More] …

It all began with an iPhone, an 80-year-old man, a cement truck, and a street barely wide enough for two donkeys to pass without their ears scraping. I was in Victoria late last week—the main city, dead center of Gozo, the #2 island in Malta. I was traveling again on business—finally! A joy! And I [Read More] …

Don’t judge me. I was just a kid.  But here goes: It was the summer of 1976. I was 10 years old. Sunbeam Bread, the big bread brand where I grew up in South Louisiana, was running a promotion: Every loaf came packed with a free Bicentennial Daze trading card.   My best friend, Jim, and I collected every trading card we could. So, when [Read More] …