File under: ‘It could be worse.’ On a warm January day in 1919, a disaster struck Boston’s North End. A giant tank of molasses burst open, releasing a wave of sticky syrup that swept through the streets, crushing buildings and killing 21 people. The Great Molasses Flood, as it became known, was a bizarre and…
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Suprise Me
Boston’s ‘Great Molasses Flood’
Prompted By Floods
/ Stories
File under: ‘It could be worse.’ On a warm January day in 1919, a disaster struck Boston’s North End. A giant tank of molasses burst open, releasing a wave of sticky syrup that swept through the streets, crushing buildings and killing 21 people. The Great Molasses Flood, as it became known, was a bizarre and…
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The Mall Is Dead – Long Live The Mall
Prompted By Shopping: Then and Now
/ Stories
From Department Store Detours to Deliveries at My Door Hey there, comedy connoisseurs! Here I am here, fresh off a bargain hunt that left me with more questions than discounts. We all know the struggle is real when that cashier asks, “Paper or plastic?” But let me tell you, folks, things weren’t always this “eco-friendly…
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Relax
Prompted By Marijuana
/ Stories
Shalimar
Prompted By Fragrant Flashbacks
/ Stories
I rushed home and sprayed myself with Shalimar. It wasn’t a strong scent, but I could smell my mother’s perfume.
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The Gs
Prompted By Ex-Friends
/ Stories
The Gs Louise and I were both living in the women’s graduate dorm at Columbia in the 1960s while I was in library school and she in the social work program, and we soon became fast friends. Within a few years after grad school we each married, happily our new husbands hit it off, and…
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Who’s Zoomin’ Who?
Prompted By Cheating
/ Stories
I don’t know if I’ve cheated at cards. I never progressed much beyond ‘go fish’ and blackjack with the deck of fifty-two. I can’t remember if I ever kept excessive change dealt out by a storekeeper. I found $400 dollars in tightly rolled bills in a baking soda can, stashed in the demolished darkroom of…
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Two Years In
Prompted By Pandemic, Year Three
/ Stories
Warning: this is a rant. A month ago, I might have written something more cheerful. Maybe next month. But I’m suddenly undone.
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Home Ahead of my Time
Prompted By Going to Work
/ Stories
I was ready to go on my own, with my office in my apartment--my studio apartment.
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The Parents Group
Prompted By Community
/ Stories
The Parents Group When our son was born in New York Hospital I was asked if we’d like to attend The First Year of Life, a series of quarterly lectures by Lee Salk, the renown child psychologist. Of course we signed up and over the following year we attended four wonderful lectures held in a…
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