It's July 4th as I prepare this email. Do you think I'd spend time away from my wife just to make you smile? Well do ya? I didn't think so. Seriously, I wish you and America a belated July 4th celebration. We've been celebrating this since 1941, the world was so different then. And in the bigger picture, Independence Day actually happened way way back in 1776. This great nation, this grand experiment of government, has certainly had its share of calamities but we're still here. Today we're facing yet another whirlwind of political, spiritual, social, economic drama. Will we survive? No one knows for sure but one thing I'm certain of: If we survive it will be because of God's grace --- even now we're blessed beyond what we deserve.

Talbot County, Maryland is old. Very old. One of the earliest buildings dates back to 1682, a Quaker Meeting House, the site of the oldest religious building still in use in the United States. But more than the origin of its buildings, three favorite sons of the county encapsulate its history in different but fascinating ways. Two were symbols of the Revolutionary War, the other of the Civil War. One a resident (though he wouldn't have been considered so at the time…) of St. Michael's, another Oxford, and the third his very own island, Tilghman.

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So, that's their claim to fame: The Oldest Winery in the Americas. Catchy, but we had never heard of this place before. My wife, Sheri, and I are wine drinkers with 50-bottles of wine at our home. Alright, it's not a cellar, but we have a small house. We belong to a few wine clubs. We have been to many wine regions around the U.S., Baja California, and other countries such as South Africa, but what is this place that has such a significant title? One might think that a landmark like this would come up in conversation or be read in articles. Nope, not even on our radar.

Curated by Ed Boitano European Union governments recently agreed to add the United States to their list of countries from which they will allow non-essential travel, EU diplomats said. Ambassadors from the EU’s 27 countries approved the addition of the United States and five other countries at a meeting on Wednesday, with the change to take effect in the coming …

A curiosity of the Valle d’Aosta is the one that concerns fondue, a typical and delicious dish based on fontina cheese, characteristic of the Alpine area between Valle d’Aosta, Piedmont, Savoy and Switzerland.

The fertile little crescent upon the sea you find on a map of Italy offers much more of culinary interest than you might think. Liguria isn’t in the top 10 of regions invaded by “foodies”, yet some of Italy’s best olive oil grows on those steep slopes to the sea.

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In early 1971, Leonard Cohen was still a relatively unknown singer-songwriter. Despite releasing two critically acclaimed records – 1967’s Songs of Leonard Cohen and 1969’s Songs From a Room – the Canadian artist, who previously plied his trade as a novelist and poet, had yet to tour the U.S. He was then living on a farm in the small town of Big East Fork, Tennessee while preparing the release of that March’s Songs of Love and Hate. “I had a house, a jeep, a carbine, a pair of cowboy boots, a girlfriend … a typewriter, a guitar,” he once recalled. “Everything I needed.”

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