Stories,photos

128 results total, viewing 11 - 20

I like to fight back against the health-food and exercise addicts. “My father,” I claim, “prescribed salt – a pile, a pillar, of it against infection, a cigarette as a cure for a cold, and a shot of Four Roses as a pick-me-up … more

Mike Fink | 2/19/16

Almost happy in the adopted homeland

I met Alexandra Broches at a marina cafe in South Kingstown. She has served as director of the Hera Gallery in Wakefield, where she has also shown her prints, photographs and paintings. She has taught at both the University of Rhode … more

Mike Fink | 2/26/15

The wrong cup

I met my aunt Stella for the first time when I was a bar mitzvah boy, I mean a young teen-ager. Why? She came down to our cobblestones from Montreal, now that the war was over and travel bans were lifted. You could take a train or drive on your … more

Mike Fink | 11/7/13

Resist easy answers

I’m supposed to require “research” projects from the students in my first-semester journalism elective at Rhode Island School of Design. My first question to the students is, … more

Mike Fink | 10/16/17

Scott J. Turner’s new book is a beauty

He strolled around the block and noted the trees, the bugs, the birds and the beasts, and he kept a journal of seasonal surprises or reassurances. Scott J. Turner then turned his observations into a … more

Mike Fink | 11/7/21

Classic movies portrayed the Arab world in a benign light

As a teacher of film history, I show “classic” movies of yore and compare them to recent fare, adding commentary about their contexts. Here is such a comparison between then and now on-screen. Sabu, the Indian stable boy who was the … more

Mike Fink | 10/29/15

Joyous Purim is entertaining … and more

In French, this month is spelled like the war divinity: “Mars.” In ancient, classical Greece, Athena is the goddess of wisdom ... and war! Now, Mordecai, the hero of … more

Mike Fink | 3/3/23

Teatime with Judy

It was such a long time ago on the Benefit Street trail. It was Judy Beckman, with her skills and interests in genealogical trees, who found the addresses of my grandfather and great uncle and their wives. “The ghosts, the phantoms, of the lives … more

Mike Fink | 2/13/14

On Presidents Day, ambivalence

I grew up with “1001 Famous Poems,” a leather-bound collection of verses that was a gift from a school librarian to my dad. The volume contained an ode by Sir Walter Scott to the … more

Mike Fink | 2/6/22

Remembering an old friend

Sara Kaiser poses as a model at RISD and at the Providence Art Club. She is a delicate young woman with refined features. I met her when she worked as a home companion for a friend of mine who required hospice care and has since passed away. The … more

Mike Fink | 5/9/14