Suprise Me

Something one must remember about me is the environment in which I was raised. My mother had serious mental health issues. My father didn’t want to upset her and instructed us to do the same. We all took a lot from her and that became the norm, until I blew up and fought back, screaming… Read More

Was the song meant to instill a false sense of pride in his students, or a fever dream of a school where he’d really like to teach? Read More

As I wrote about two years ago in Checkbook Gardener, we have a beautiful little garden oasis on a busy street in the heart of Edgartown, on Martha’s Vineyard. This summer, between the pandemic, four months of drought and a less-than-diligent landscaper (not to be confused with Teresa, who continues to take wonderful care of… Read More

There were two times, one in the '60s and one in the '70s, when something changed my life dramatically, Read More

My pet peeves. Read More

I was never a lover of Ed Sullivan (except for the famous Beatles performance) or Carol Burnett, but boy did I enjoy Rowan and Martin and The Smothers Brothers Comedy Hour. Read More

A normal day shattered by disaster. Read More

I used to joke that I had motor oil running through my veins. Thanks to my great uncle: Uncle Meyer, as I’ve written about before, most of the Sarasons came north from St. Louis to Detroit to work for GM (my father worked in Flint for the Chevrolet Division starting in 1937, but after WWII, did… Read More

Santiago Calatrava's Milwaukee Art Museum is one of the strangest buildings I have ever seen or heard of. Read More

My reconnecting stories begin with ways to rekindle old ties that have fallen away over the years. Read More