Suprise Me

  Ah, waiting rooms. Those fluorescent-lit purgatories where childhood dreams went to die a slow, magazine-fueled death. Remember those giant, uncomfortable chairs swallowing you whole like a bad couch on “Laugh-In”? The only escape? Dog-eared copies of National Geographic filled with pictures of naked butts and confusing maps of exotic lands (where, presumably, dentists/ doctors… Read More

One professional encounter started so small I could never anticipate how profoundly it would change how I thought about business and maybe even life. Read More

He paused, looking like a person who was calculating an age difference or trying to recall the age of consent. Read More

In “Slaughter House Five” Kurt Vonnegut wrote, “I’ve come unstuck in time”. I am not sure if that is the appropriate phrase, or if we are through the looking glass, but we are definitely not bending toward Dr. King’s moral universe this election cycle; far from it. Every day brings some new, disgusting revelation, whether… Read More

Dear Younger Self What a cutie!   But seriously I’m here to give you some advice. Be a more adventurous eater,  try the sushi. Don’t fight with your mother so much,  you’ll find out later she was usually right. Practice the piano so you can play something besides Fur Elyse. Don’t abandon your theatre dreams… Read More

We came off the Vineyard just before Labor Day, 2001 to a house in renovation chaos and our family in chaos. My in-laws had always spent the parting days of summer with us on the Vineyard, then the beginning of the fall with us in Newton, but Erv passed away the previous May. Gladys still… Read More

There were so many steps along the way where something could go wrong that it always had a bit of a magical quality to it for me whenever it worked. Read More

>If you are going car camping it’s really easy because weight is not an issue. Here’s where convenience comes into play. Canned goods are your friend. You can take cans of things that just heat and eat for a good dinner, say for instance chili or tamales. When I heat up a can of soup… Read More

The world's best clam chowder Read More

I met her “Becky Thatcher-style”; she was painting the white post fence that separated our properties and I introduced myself. We quickly learned that we were both involved in the art world, she as Director/Curator of the Brattleboro Art Museum, I as a board member of the Rose Art Museum at Brandeis University. She gave… Read More