[Photo Credit: Mark McElroy. “Ginja Face.” Lisbon, 2011.] In the photo above, my youngest nephew (Walter), my partner (Clyde), and my oldest nephew (Parks) are sampling ginja, a sour cherry liquor popular in Lisbon, usually served with a...
Guidebooks and locals agree: in Lisbon, the Thing You Must Do is have a pastel de nata — a Portuguese egg custard pastry. They’re easy to come by, since every bakery in town cranks them out by the truckload. You’ll seem them in...
An acquaintance I admire loves to say, “It is what it is.” Does a presidential candidate have a toxic stance on global warming or gay marriage? It is what it is. Has a situation in the workplace gotten out of hand because of an...
I have an obsession with lost places: homes, buildings, cities, or events rendered inaccessible by the passage of time. So I’m in love with this collection of Depression-era photos from the Library of Congress. In lieu of the grainy, sepia...
Mystery-Free Left Overs, originally uploaded by MadeByMark. I love that the good folks at Roxx label and date their doggie boxes, and wish more restaurants would do this. That way, I’d know without opening the box what leftovers I was tossing...
After the longest downtime since MadeByMark.com launched in November of 2000, we’re back on the air. If you’ve been following me on Twitter, Facebook, or Google+, you know I’ve been hammering the good folks at Squarespace pretty...
In the end, we’ve just been too busy having fun to write or upload much, especially given the sl-o-o-w internet connection in our apartment here in downtown Lisbon. But, even as we’re packing for the return trip home, I can tell you...
We’re in Lisbon, where the skies are blue, the sun is bright, and the cool air is perfumed with the scent of fresh-baked bread and egg-custard pastries. Around every corner, there’s a stunning vista: a sun-drenched castle, tiled roofs...
