September 2018 – Ragbag Mind

Dog Stories

Sep 18, 2018Toby TompkinsEssays

Dog Stories I grew up with dogs, and I’m afraid of them. Our good friends in New Hampshire have two black Labrador-Chow mixes, friendly, affectionate critters now going a bit gray in the muzzle and lame in the hips. But they are still dogs, and they regard it as their bounden duty to guard the

A Hobbling Tour of Florence and Rome, part one

Sep 5, 2018Toby TompkinsEssays

A HOBBLING TOUR OF FLORENCE AND ROME Observations of an Unapologetic Tourist Part One FLORENCE In June of 2006 my wife Patsy and I went to Italy, partly on business, partly as tourists, but also to practice the Italian we’d been studying for more than five years. Although we have no Italian heritage and haven’t