Suprise Me

Playing with Fire As a child I spent summers with my family at my grandmother’s small Catskills hotel.  (See My Game Mother,  My Heart Remembers My Grandmother’s Hotel , The Troubadour,  Hotel Kittens, The Cat and the Forshpeiz and Our Special Guests) One summer a family with a son about my age –  we both must have… Read More

The epitome of grace, class, and intelligence, Jacqueline Bouvier Kennedy Onassis was, from the time I was very young, my idol. She married John F. Kennedy when I was a baby and she set about having babies too. She was married to JFK a mere 10 years and was pregnant five times, resulting in only… Read More

The Brandeis Theatre Department hired a new scenic painter in 1973. In addition to painting all the backdrops, he also taught a life drawing course and advertised for models. I had done a little modeling during my time at Brandeis, but nothing note-worthy. This was a real class, taught by a master, so I signed… Read More

I helped Mom lick S&H Green stamps and put them in many, many books, but I have no memory of what she traded them in for. As I scanned the Internet, some thermoses looked familiar, so perhaps she traded them for those and the matching cooler, which would be used at Memorial Day picnics at… Read More

Well, another year has rolled over and threatens to play dead. Congrats to all who survived to read this —you’ve lived long enough to cross into the netherworld between the second and third year of our worldwide pandemic. We haven’t lost too many friends. Most of us believe epidemiologists who deny that the wonder vaccine… Read More

I'm not really someone who makes new year's resolutions, but this year Sally announced she plans to learn to play the old accordion she bought on a whim years ago.  Read More

She rings up the order. She is not wearing a mask. I am not wearing a mask. Read More

If you say something embarrassing, you may be able to deny it plausibly. That's not the case if you embarrass yourself IN WRITING! Read More

Passed Out in the Library The last thing I remember was locking the door of the high school library at the end of the day.  And then inexplicably I found myself seated at my desk, confused,  and with an aching head. I had no memory of walking back to my office and sitting down at… Read More

Once the shutdown happened, a friend phoned me asking when I thought we'd be released from it. "June," I replied without hesitation. I so wanted to be wrong, but the data guided me. Read More