Suprise Me

Odessa When I was growing up my parents had a housekeeper named Odessa.   She was a tall and stately-looking Black woman,  and I adored her. In the mornings before my mother left for work Odessa arrived,  made sure I finished my breakfast,  and walked me the few blocks to school.  And at 3:00 she’d be… Read More

If only George Clooney were waiting to treat me at the ER, perhaps the trip would be worth all of the wait and inconvenience. Read More

Rowboat When I was young my grandmother ran a small hotel on a lake in the Catskills,  and I’ve written about the idyllic summers I spent there with my family.  (See My Heart Remembers My Grandmother’s Hotel,  My Game Mother, Hotel Kittens,  The Cat and the Forshpeiz,  Playing with Fire, and The Troubadour) One happy memory of those… Read More

There was no Facebook or Instagram in 1970. I sent a postcard to Brandeis with my preferences: neat, non-smoker. Over the summer I received one back: Carol from Brooklyn. She received a similar one with my name and address. I later learned that she thought I would arrive in over-alls (the East Coast kids called… Read More

Our town was a very very very fine town Read More

March 15, 2020. We were having a socially distant dinner at close friends. An annual winter event of mac and cheese usually followed by watching a Masterpiece Theater episode. This year, nothing suitable was on, so we watched a movie on a DVD. COVID-19 was already surging in parts of the West Coast and we… Read More

Eva Le Gallienne as Peter Pan 1928 ”Do you believe in fairies?” When my mother was young her parents took her to Broadway to see Peter Pan,  the title role played by the actress Eva Le Gallienne who famously flew on wires over the heads of the audience. The London-born Le G as she was called,… Read More

Remember how, in her 70s, she walked four extra blocks in a snowstorm to save a few pennies on toilet paper? Read More

After two warm days, January 18, 2001 was cold and sunny, prompting everything that had previously melted to freeze again. I had a morning meeting at the Rose Art Museum in Waltham, followed by lunch with an old friend who had moved to San Diego long ago, so I dressed nicely, even wearing my mink… Read More

I loved how the keys plunked and the typebars clattered, the ping of the bell and the thwack of the carriage return. Read More