A Signature Color

cartoon of a woman's bare feet on a beach, with toenails painted turquoise

November 25, 2025November 25, 2025 ~ Kana Smith ~ 28 Comments

It was sometime in junior high or high school that my mom and my sister and I started the tradition of painting our toenails at the beginning of Spring Break vacations. We lived in a place where the snowbanks hadn't melted by March, so our toes wouldn't have seen the light of day since the … Continue reading A Signature Color

Pirates of the London Underground

the "tube map," a schematic diagram of the London underground subway

November 15, 2025 ~ Kana Smith ~ 12 Comments

This morning I listed some of the significant maps in my life, and there's another one that stands out in my memory: the London Tube Map! The Tube Map has been periodically updated, and stylistic flourishes added, but the basic design of this subway-diagram was created in 1933, by a smart fellow who realized that … Continue reading Pirates of the London Underground

Vanity Fair (or Unfair)

AI-generated image of the author looking in two mirrors

November 4, 2025November 4, 2025 ~ Kana Smith ~ 28 Comments

I've been trying, here, to dig down and write some things that are real (even if they don't frame me in the best light), and what's on my mind today is vanity. My own vanities are a weird mix---things I literally don't even bother to look at, and things I obsess about as if they … Continue reading Vanity Fair (or Unfair)