Courting the Imagination
Places Andrew Brown Places Andrew Brown

Courting the Imagination

MOUNT JOY, Pa. — This respite is an opportunity to hideaway for an hour. To be in each other’s company is our favorite pastime. With so few opportunities lately to enjoy it alone, this is a gift.

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The Cow Without a Smile
Places Andrew Brown Places Andrew Brown

The Cow Without a Smile

COLUMBIA, Pa. — Here is a manufactured innocence that I see quite clearly, but have failed to relinquish completely. Growing up, we would say that our veins and arteries carried iced tea. We joked the convenience stores were blood banks. We transfused ourselves after a three-mile run. We transplanted our broken adolescent hearts with ice cream scoops.

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An Early Morning Hike
Places Andrew Brown Places Andrew Brown

An Early Morning Hike

COLUMBIA, Pa. — Every sentence is always inadequate, so a fear of failure has never paralyzed me. That’s not what makes writing difficult. It’s the possibility of success that strikes me as terrifying. What if I succeed? What if, during one of these early-morning moments, the seamless expression of an adjacent world materializes? How do I live with myself?

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A Tour of James Buchanan’s Wheatland
Places Andrew Brown Places Andrew Brown

A Tour of James Buchanan’s Wheatland

LANCASTER, Pa. — Cross the threshold. Say where you’re from. Follow your guide, dressed in period costume, to the left. This was James Buchanan’s dining room. Here’s a list of foods that people in his time would have eaten for dinner: turkey, cranberry sauce, green beans.

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