Suprise Me

When I got pregnant with my daughter, I worked at the law school on the UC Berkeley campus, known then as Boalt Hall. I described my position there as “petty bureaucrat,” doing payroll and other administrative duties. It so happened that nine women on the staff became pregnant that year. Rumors circulated among staff that… Read More

Trump was the opposite of everything represented by the big man who worked in the mine. I began with an opening verse whose phrasing was very close to the original. Every morning at the Tower, you could see him arrive With soft, small hands, he weighed two-forty-five Wore an extra-long tie, stared at all the girls’ tits And everybody knew you didn't give no lip to Mean Don Read More

He would hold the instrument behind his back in his left hand, the bow behind his back in the right, and play. Once he had your attention, he would proceed to lie down on the living room carpet and continue, with no loss of rhythm or resonance Read More

The Great Hampton Babysitter Heist  When our son Noah was very young we spent several summers in the Hamptons in a rented house a short drive from both the beach and the town. One summer my husband Danny invited his business colleague Stan to join us for the weekend with his wife Lynn and their… Read More

All of this makes me long for the days when most health care was affordable and doctors were reachable by simply calling their office. Read More

At this point I had to make a split-second choice. I could stop and tell Mr. C or just let it go. Read More

Two hundred dollars in - excuse the expression - cold, hard cash. Read More

“There would have been no rescue here!” The fire marshal held my arm as fiercely as my gaze, neither of us paying attention to the breast milk leaking across my shirt. I tore my eyes away from his and tried again to look at the house, still reeking of wet char, a crazy perimeter of crime tape separating the ugly remains of our home from the gorgeous June morning. Read More

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

When I was about 10 years old a friend, Dougie, the neighborhood troublemaker, dared me to smoke a cigarette. Read More