Category Archives: Longwood Gardens

Born To Kvetch

Posted on September 15, 2019 by Roger Walck

“Born To Kvetch,” by Michael Wex. Book This is a free book I found years ago on our Jewish Community Center Book Exchange Shelf that I couldn’t pass up. The cover shows a sullen 13-year-old boy in Jewish dress that … Continue reading →

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Snail Mail

Posted on September 10, 2019 by Roger Walck

Classmate Nancy L. Musser has a treasure-trove of high school memorabilia that she has sent to me over the years by “snail mail.”  Most of it I have published here, and each time, I thanked her via email. Now, I … Continue reading →

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Public Speaking, Public Listening

Posted on July 24, 2019 by Roger Walck

“Speak No Evil” by Joe Queenan. The Wall Street Journal, 6/14/2014 How does someone become a professional public speaker, someone people will pay to hear?  Queenan’s career all started by a humorous piece he wrote on public relations that was … Continue reading →

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Air Conditioning At Longwood Gardens

Posted on July 21, 2019 by Roger Walck

Early last summer, Longwood management began using the library in the Peirce–du Pont House for business meetings, but I thought no business person is going to sit through a meeting in a room  with no air conditioning once the weather … Continue reading →

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Window Repair

Posted on July 10, 2019 by Roger Walck

My house is about fifty years old and some of the windows are deteriorating.  I thought I would just get new windows installed until I learned the price, and, I just did not like the look of the new windows.  … Continue reading →

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Pierre du Pont’s Purchase of Longwood Gardens

Posted on March 31, 2019 by Roger Walck

A reader of this blog asked what Pierre du Pont (1870-1954) paid for Longwood Gardens. The question is answered in the 12-minute video that runs continuously in the library of his home there: $15,500 in 1906. Visitors coming from the … Continue reading →

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What TV House Hunters Find Important

Posted on February 15, 2019 by Roger Walck

Those home-search TV shows are my last-resort shows to watch when I can find nothing else (which is happening more frequently lately). These are the ones where a couple is looking to move to a new location, often a vacation … Continue reading →

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Relieving A Snoot Full Of Snot

Posted on December 21, 2018 by Roger Walck

Growing up in East Lansdowne, several of my grandfather’s male neighbors (on Melrose Avenue, near the school) were Italians from the old country with very thick accents. They would talk with my grandfather while tending their adjoining gardens in a … Continue reading →

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World’s Dumbest Christmas TV Commercial And Alice’s Pearls

Posted on November 25, 2018 by Roger Walck

My vote is for the latest GMC car commercial. It starts out with a young couple—he especially looks to be in his 20s—yet they are in a house that in my neighborhood would be a many-million dollar house, if we … Continue reading →

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The Ringling Museum in Sarasota

Posted on October 7, 2018 by Roger Walck

If you think the Peirce-du Pont House at Longwood Gardens is impressive, you should see the Ringling Museum in Sarasota, FL. It, too, has a mansion, but with the pretentious name Cà D’Zan, which, they tell us, is Venetian slang … Continue reading →

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