I remember a time when I was a little girl, riding in the car somewhere with my parents. The car, I believe, was a Dodge Dart, and it seemed to go on for a city block, This was before the days of confining car seats and I was in my own vast world of the…
Smashing Pumpkins
Here, in all its splendor, is this year’s Halloween jack o’lantern, a tradition my father and I have practiced, oh, for decades (and yet our skill set has scarcely improved). I’m so happy I took the picture because as solid as it was when we carved it and as formidable as it looked Halloween night,…
Nobody Here But Us Chickens
I was happy to see Susan Orlean had an article in a recent New Yorker. I had liked The Orchid Thief and The Bullfighter Checks Her Makeup, but her New Yorker article showed me a side of Ms. Orlean I had not known — she is a liar. In “The It Bird,” Ms. Orlean chronicles…
Charmed, I’m Sure
I have always been a hard sell when it comes to magic. Back when I toggled my first loose baby tooth, my parents explained about the Tooth Fairy — your tooth falls out and the Tooth Fairy appears while you sleep, takes the tooth and pays you for it (your original Cash for Clunkers concept)….
The (Spaghetti) Wrestler
While in New York last week, I discovered spaghetti wrestling. Silly me, at first I thought they were two separate entities — spaghetti, as in something you eat and wrestling, as in something you do. Spaghetti wrestling offers both. You are, no doubt, more worldly than I and already know this sport of sorts involves…
Orange Crush
It is Sunday afternoon, I am in my frock, ready to go out. I am waiting for my husband, who’s been out running errands, to pick me up. He is a smidge late. I am used to this. The phone rings. “I’m okay,” my husband says, “but I’ve been in an accident.” My heart and…
Kidney Pie
You cannot grow a kidney from a kidney bean. If you could, things would be a lot easier for Ms. X. Ms. X is the wife of a friend of a friend. Ms. X needs a new kidney or she dies. That’s the deal. This friend, let’s call him Mr. P has said, okay, take…
Ghent — On Board for Vegetarian Day
On Board for Vegetarian Day Can you legislate a meatless life? The folks in Ghent are trying. According to a United Nations report, livestock is to blame for nearly a fifth of greenhouse gas emissions. The mayor of Ghent has taken this to heart and has launched Veggiedag, in which civil servants and school children will…
Roadwalker Gumbo
Once upon a time, there was a Pulizer Prize-winning author, a woman who drank Jack Daniels, shot ducks and wore diamonds with equal nonchalance. Her name is Shirley Ann Grau and she was my magical guide around New Orleans a few years back. “I’m quite a dull, conventional person,” she warned. This was a lie….
Earth Month Special: Stone Soup
Jesus, it is said, made wine from water and fashioned loaves and fishes from thin air. The rest of us must acquire foodstuff by more conventional means. But being Earth Month and all, I’m hoping miracles are on the menu. I did not wake up on Earth Day feeling the presence of miracles, I woke…
