Jones’s Church Supper suggests the celebration of an African American picnic supper, sometimes called Dinner on the Grounds. An event like this is held in summer, usually on the first Sunday in August. It was always, and still is, a revival meeting. And while...
Astrid Lindgren’s zany picnic is a gastronomical feast. The chief picnicker is Pippi Longstocking, a brash, energetic, good-natured Swedish girl of nine who lives independently packs her own picnic. After zipping through some household chores, Pippi takes her...
Christie’s picnic at Kawkab in Syria was indelible because the dessert was in bloom. During an archeological dig in 1934 (?), Christie and Max Mallowan* packed a lorry named Queen Mary for sightseeing at Kawkab, a hill about 300 meters high. They expected an...
Charles Addams. “Goodness, Murray, it wouldn’t be a picnic without ants.” The New Yorker (June 11, 1949)
Imagine a noir picnic at which you tell your hosts a shark-feeding-frenzy story. That’s Orson Welles’ idea of dark times in The Lady from Shanghai. Imagine, too, that the story told by Michael O’Hara is intended as an allusion to his host and...
Cadmus’s What I Believe (1947-1948) is a beach picnic without food, inspired by E.M. Forester’s essay of the same-named. Forster is the dark man reading a book with the red cover in the lower left foreground. The figures are based on some of Cadmus’ friends and former...
Rogers, a nineteen-year-old Private first-class soldier, met Stein and Toklas in 19717 Nimes while on furlough. Working with an ambulance unit attached to the French army, the U.S. had not yet entered the war. Rogers followed Stein and Toklas into the Hotel de...
Winston Smith’s relationship with Julia (no last name) is among the most satisfying moments in Orwell’s 1984. It’s an interlude of romantic entanglement that begins a lustful relationship ending in pain and utter defeat. Leaving the dust of London for a safe place in...
Medearis’ Family Reunion is a joyous and humorous evocation of an American extended family gathering. Featured Image: Roger Medearis. Family Reunion (1950). Colored lithograph.
Anna Mary Robertson Moses, aka Grandma Moses, is an American primitive artist whose paintings convey a strong pastoral sentimentality. In all her paintings, the subjects are the people of her town, Hoosic Falls, NY, whose activities she celebrates. The Family Picnic...
