While summer is prime travel time for most people, not everyone gets to escape. But don’t worry: the next best thing to actually traveling is reading a good travel story. Here we’ve collected our favorite travel books. From fiction to nonfiction, Alaska to the Amalfi Coast, you can go on travel adventures without ever leaving your living room. – Joseph McKeown
Read moreMy Favorite Holiday Recipe
The holidays and food are closely intertwined. From a Christmas ham to a Bûche de Noël to latkes and brisket, the sights and smells of our favorite holiday food can conjure up many happy memories. To celebrate this (and, okay, as an excuse to talk about food), we thought it’d be fun to share our favorite recipes from the holiday season. Whatever food you cook this time of year, happy holidays from DLG! – Joseph
Read moreOur Recommended Summer (Immigration-Related) Reads
There are few things in life as pleasurable as a good book. Add to that a lovely park or a beach with soft sand and a cold beer, sangria, or, why not, a margarita beside you—that’s practically perfection. So as the lists of recommended summer reads start coming out, we thought we’d share our immigration-related ones. Happy summer reading!
Read moreMy Favorite International City
It’s officially springtime (yes, difficult to believe with this cold and depressing weather) and it’s time to get really serious about planning summer vacations and getaways (if you haven’t already). For inspiration, we thought we’d share our favorite international cities.
Matt Bray – Montréal
Montréal wins my vote. It has always appealed to me and I try to visit whenever I can. Its people are fun-loving and kind, fiercely independent, and its streets and neighborhoods manageable and attractive. Montreal has a lot of hustle and bustle, but is not a teeming metropolis the way New York is. It has great nightlife, restaurants and a ton of cultural attractions while remaining affordable and unpretentious. And I’m lucky to have some friends who live there so I not only get a free place to stay, but also enthusiastic, local guides. Mere hours from NYC, Montreal can also sometimes feel like you’re in Europe, thanks to the strong Francophone community. And I love Québec French!
My Best Summer Family Vacation
August is traditionally the time for summer vacations (I’m personally of the opinion that all American businesses should take a cue from Europe and shut down for the month—that’s cool with you, Protima, right?). And who doesn’t love a good family summer vacation--full of bonding, fun, love, and siblings fighting each other in the backseat during those excruciatingly long car rides. We therefore asked D&B staff to share their best summer family vacation stories. – Joseph McKeown
Matt Bray, Attorney
I went with the extended family on my mom’s side to Cape May, NJ--I was probably about ten or eleven. We all--five full families--stayed together in a big house (which itself was a step up from previous years’ vacations spent at campgrounds on the Jersey Shore). All the kids--the cousins--performed for the adults. We wrote original plays and lip-synced and did routines to some family favorites (including The Beatles’ “Yellow Submarine”). I also remember the dunes and grass and walking to the beach in beautiful weather. And getting a hermit crab (which I later killed by leaving in the house during an extermination).
Elizabeth Brettschneider, Attorney
My best family vacations growing up were when my parents, my brother, and I went to Maine. I remember lots of messy lobster eating with the plastic bib around my neck and my fingers covered in butter. On one particular summer trip to Maine when I was about eleven years old, the family drove up Cadillac Mountain in Acadia National Park and then went for a walk around the paths on top. There are many scenic overlooks and we posed for photos. My dad was getting nervous that my brother and I were too close to the edge so of course I took advantage and started posing on what looked like a dangerous precipice (but really wasn’t) while balancing on one leg. A photo of this shenanigan was snapped and now this practice has become a family tradition. Even into adulthood I continue to send my father photos of myself balancing on the edge of what looks like a cliff.
My New Year’s Resolution
The ancient Babylonians at the start of their new year made promises to pay off debts and return borrowed farm equipment. The Romans made sacrifices and promises to the god Janus. The Puritans made vows to better themselves and avoid habitual sins. We asked the staff at the firm their new year’s resolution(s), a third of which will statistically be broken by the end of January. Here's what they said. - Joseph McKeown
Elizabeth Brettschneider, Attorney
Because I am planning to run the NYC Marathon again in 2014, I resolve to get back to my training schedule so I’ll be ready in time.
Matthew Bray, Attorney
Learn Italian.
Jonathan Blank, Paralegal
Take the LSAT. Attend a Knicks game at Madison Square Garden.
My Thanksgiving Traditions
Thanksgiving is, of course, a very American holiday (sorry, Canada), and we thought it¹d be interesting to ask the diverse staff at the firm to describe their Thanksgiving traditions. We wish you and your family a wonderful Thanksgiving!
Ada Biewald, Bookkeeper
Our tradition is to be partially untraditional. We have smoked ham instead of turkey, but with stuffing, together with all trimmings of mashed and sweet potatoes, homemade cranberry sauce, and baked apples with cinnamon. No one leaves before the apple and pecan pies are served. I remind our children each year how lucky and thankful we must be to live in the great USA!
Gentiana Bitri, Paralegal
Thanksgiving is not a European holiday, so I didn't know really anything about it before I came to the US. The upcoming one will be the first Thanksgiving holiday ever in my life, and I already asked my mother if she is planning to prepare the traditional turkey and any other US goodies, most notably pumpkin pie. It looks like I am going to have a great Thanksgiving holiday, finally with my family!