palimpsest

After so many years, St. Mark’s Church is a palimpsest of memories for Mullins.

“They have this palimpsest of a billion years of history.”

“The Institute is a palimpsest all its own. Remember that word I taught you?”

“She’s creating a palimpsest of different eras,” he says, noting that unlike L.A.’s streets, which are the city’s responsibility for upkeep, sidewalks are built and maintained by private developers.

But Ms. Rolikova, the innkeeper, thought it was important to see it, and so she opened the padlocked door to reveal a palimpsest of Russia over the past century.