Ann Silverthorn

More than a dozen citizens spoke on both sides of the contentious Presque Isle Gateway Project in the crowded assembly room at the Millcreek Township Municipal Building on February 28, 2023. The agenda for the Millcreek Township Board of Supervisors meeting, which began at 5:00 p.m., and included firearms purchases for the police, a computer…

Author Donna Tartt’s expert craft in word choice, phrase construction, paragraph progression, and plot architecture combined with narrator David Pittu’s deep, exact pronunciation and dramatic inflection made all 32 hours of listening to The Goldfinch (2013) audiobook—simply delicious. The novel centers around Theo Decker, a young man who lost his mother through tragedy and gained a priceless…

Recently, I was honored to speak at the National Authors Day celebration hosted by the Chenango County Historical Society and SUNY Morrisville (Norwich campus). This gave me the opportunity to revisit the homeland of William E. Dimorier, whose life and service I spent many years researching and writing about. The early morning of November 1st started off with…

On October 22, 2022, the Presque Isle Chapter of the National Society of Daughters of the American Revolution (DAR) in Erie, PA, celebrated 125 years of service with a luncheon and celebration at the historic Kahkwa Club. I am the vice-regent (former treasurer) of the Presque Isle Chapter and volunteered to research the 13 founding members and write…

What a milestone—125 years of service for the Presque Isle Chapter of the National Society of Daughters of the American Revolution (DAR) in Erie, PA. The chapter celebrated with a luncheon and celebration at the historic Kahkwa Club on Saturday, October 22, 2022.  I am the vice-regent (former treasurer) of the Presque Isle Chapter and volunteered to…

There’s a boulevard in Curtea de Argeș, Romania that never sleeps. The one-way traffic on Bulevardul Basarabilor is constant and oblivious to a speed limit. Pedestrians amble the sidewalks along the narrow, tree-lined thoroughfare at a steady pace.  Young and old, fast and slow. Here and there people pause in clusters to converse in patches…

If only I had more time. . . I’d visit every one of the areas of interest in the Wallachia, Dobruja, Transylvania, and Banat-Crisana regions of Romania I’m highlighting in this post. I’m going to share with you from Welcome to Bucharest and Romania, gifted to us by the concierge at EuropaRoyale Hotel Bucharest in 2019. We will…

Romania has a rich and complex history, which I never quite understood, until I decided to study and summarize the history section in Welcome to Bucharest and Romania, gifted to us by the concierge at EuropaRoyale Hotel Bucharest in 2019. After finishing this project, I understand the many changes in power that make Romania what it is today, a…

We said farewell to our cairn terrier, Nutmeg, on July 8, 2022, and although she was 13 years old, we were completely taken by surprise when she was diagnosed with bone cancer a few weeks ago and given one to three months to live. Each time we adopt a pet, our rational minds know we…

Until I set foot on Romanian soil for a family event in 2019, I pictured a country coldly washed in black-and-white and imagined that its occupants never smiled. I was, obviously, wrong. The country is alive with natural beauty, and the people are warm and friendly.  Happily, I’m headed back to Romania this summer and…