Suprise Me

Wow, blue books! So many memories! I considered calling the story “Blank Space” — because there was always a lot more blank space than writing in my blue books — but figured this crowd wouldn’t know the Taylor Swift song, so I went with a 1970 song that applies equally well to my exam-taking experience.… Read More

I remember seeing a policewoman in the open doorway. Read More

Carving Mr Pumpkin It seems just yesteryear,  in our kitchen Noah at age 5  (did I really let him wield that sharp knife?)  and Sarah at 6  (my friend Celia’s sweet niece,  now a mother herself). Me with a headache  (“Dana’s famous migraines”,  I once heard Celia call them). “Go lie down,  I’ll watch the… Read More

The rising sun was already blazing the Monday I walked to school for the first time in my new Converse sneakers. November in Phoenix had been unusually hot, and I had convinced my mother on the weekend that it was too uncomfortable to wear the black leather dress shoes and dress pants that I had… Read More

The Gift of the Marzipan Magi Our friend John’s parents,  like my husband Danny’s,  fled Europe in the late 1930s as the Nazi horror was unfolding.  John’s folks went first to Shanghai,  and then on to the States,  where a few months later John was born. (“I was made in China!”  he’ll tell you.) During… Read More

We were recently on a deluxe cruise around Italy and Croatia with some well-heeled travelers on a beautiful ship, 600 passengers in all. We certainly didn’t meet most of them, so could make up stories about the lives of people we only saw in passing. Several evenings we had to wear formal attire. On almost… Read More

Mist. Mist outside my window... Read More

The Gates – Central Park, New York  2005 The Inexplicable Magic of The Gates  I’m an art-lover and avid museum-goer with what I guess is eclectic taste.   For example I don’t like abstract art.  (See In the Abstract) And yet though I prefer representational art,  I also like art that’s a bit phantasmic like Franz… Read More

Hair. Always been a big deal to me. I accomplished hormonal lift-off at 11 and immediately shifted into hyper hair-awareness mode. I simultaneously stumbled upon my first rebel role model — James Dean. I became fascinated with him, not for his work in film — Who knew what a method actor was? — but for… Read More

At dinner time, dads cup their hands around their mouths and call their kids home. Read More