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Welcome to Antipasto.  It is a collection of essays and writings on technology, politics, media, current events and family and work life from the recent past going back to 2004 when we were living in Italy.  If you click on any of the links to dates on the right you'll see a time-based breakdown of several dozen articles by date.

The most recent posts can be found by clicking on the Front Page tab above or on the most recent dates in the list to the right.  Here are some highlighted posts to get you started.  

Perhaps some of the more interesting posts are older, from 2004 when our whole family was living in Siena.  "Antonio's Liberation Story" is one I wrote based on Antonio Ducci's account of his experience in 1944 and the liberation of Siena.  There are also more personal anecdotes like this one of mine on Sarah's makeover.

Our children also contributed to this blog in 2004.  Here's one of Sarah's about the Duccio exhibit.  She was 15 at the time.  And here are some stories of a class trip by Alex who was only 13. 

Most of my writing energies between 2005 and 2010 have been channeled into a different blog under the "How Do We Know" domain.  It was intended specifically to explore the history and philosophy of science, science media and science communications. 

This blog, on the other hand, is different.  It is both more personal and less focused than my other blog.  I needed something where I could write whatever is interesting to me at the moment, just to share with friends, friends of friends and so forth.  Antipasto means 'before the meal' in Italian:  an appetizer.  The idea behind this blog emerged late one night while visiting my mother, Barbi.  She suggested that these fragments of prose were really constructed to stimulate conversation the same way that an appetizer is intended to stimulate the appetite... for a meal to come.

So enjoy.  I'm looking forward to the meal.  And thank you, Mom.

SQ