Suprise Me

In the Midwest, the voice of a wise, sweet spider as been silenced. Charlotte's Web is a banned book. Who would have thought? Read More

I’ve never been big on sin. Sin belongs to a god thing full of good, evil, and punishment, straight-jacketing people with shame, and excommunicating so many nice things. Regardless of my godless stance, at age 11, I helped myself to three temptations. First, I sought out pictures of naked women in magazines, stolen from my… Read More

I do love me my shoes. When I was a little kid we went to a shoe store that featured an x-ray machine that you could stick your feet inside and radiate the hell out of them. It made your bones glow. Scary, how little they knew about radiation back then. Despite my fascination with… Read More

Grace's bugle will shatter the silent spring with piercing streams of silver. Four notes will hold up the sky while they echo through the cemetery, layered like too many tears on a little girl’s cheek. Read More

I was rushing to pack for Boston, but took the phone call. It was my client at the Farm Bureau Insurance in Indianapolis, calling to say the signed contract was being FedExed to my office. Perfect way to start my birthday weekend. Dan and I had lived apart for almost 8 months by this point,… Read More

Through our years as active art collectors, we attended many art auctions, but rarely bought anything. An exception were the two works we bought from the Mass College of Art in 1994 done by celebrities that we hang in our bathroom, just for fun. We both love Gregory Peck and Steve Martin, so these were… Read More

I appreciate the value of a good story, but you have to meet me halfway. Read More

Retrospect Caption Contest (just like the New Yorker): Please write a caption for this picture of Donald Fagen, age 71, who is the co-founder and lead singer of the band Steely Dan. You may recall one of their biggest songs, Hey Nineteen. Here is an excerpt from the lyrics: Hey, nineteen That’s ‘Retha Franklin She… Read More

I read Lorraine Hunt Lieberson’s obituary with great sadness and keen interest. She passed away in 2006, aged 52 from breast cancer. She was a leading mezzo-soprano of her day and, though I’d never heard her perform, our lives intersected at a few points. She had also attended the Interlochen Arts Camp in her youth,… Read More

I rarely go to the beach, and when I do, I am generally either working on my suntan (I know, very dangerous, but I still do it) or cooling off in the water. I can’t remember ever bringing a book to the beach either as a child or as an adult. But I do like… Read More