Suprise Me

A rigged contest. A hypocritical winner? Read More

She promised a $1 an hour and guaranteed 3 hours work each week. Read More

Someone said “We need some music,” so I got up, stumbled dizzily to the nearby grand piano, and began to play the Copland. Read More

The thing that connects babies to their parents and children to their grandparents is love. Read More

My mother was a proud FDR Democrat and preached it at home. My father’s family grew up quiet Republicans, transplanted to Detroit from St. Louis. We never got him to admit who he voted for in 1960, but he became more liberal as he aged. I was not quite four years old during the 1956… Read More

Members of my family share a long and celebrated history of playing for royalty and heads of state. We are not exactly court jesters, but we come close. My Buckingham Palace event is one more gig on a long list of fancy-pants musical soirees. Read More

My favorite fairy tale? Hands down, it’s “The Twelve Dancing Princesses.” Why? The princesses would dress up every night and disappear though a secret tunnel to dance the night away with handsome princes. They would return the next morning, their shoes worn out from dancing.  I loved that story, partly because of the new shoes… Read More

The photographs in LIFE captured powerful moments, whether the subjects were soldiers, politicians, athletes, poets and writers, Hollywood stars, or everyday people. Read More

My father instilled an appreciation for art in me, filtered through his lens of what constituted good art. Read More

West with the Night Walking down a tree-lined block in the East 80s the other day I passed a brownstone with a pretty patio fronting the street.  There on a small table someone had  left an open library book. Always curious about what others are reading,  I looked through the wrought iron gate to see… Read More