Suprise Me

Doctors and patients: the body politic. Read More

As I thought about the Father’s Day prompt, What My Father Told Me, I realized that, to be honest, he hadn’t told me much. My father was very successful in his work, very funny, and a provider both to his immediate family and to the less successful members of his and my mother’s extended families.… Read More

Missing Pussycats JINX I love pussycats and when I was growing up we had a long succession of wonderful ones.   Our house had a lovely garden and those lucky cats had the best of both worlds – indoors and out. In fact one of my favorite cats was a tom named Jinx,  a dirty stay-out… Read More

My job, among others, was changing the names of the movies. Read More

When I arrived on the Brandeis campus in the autumn of 1970, it did not have a student union, though one was under construction. We were the last class to use the old mail room. Our new student union, “Usdan” officially opened on November 1, 1970. The night before, with barely any furniture to get… Read More

Do I dare to gift myself with my true name of Lauren? Probably too late, and after all, no one calls me “Big Laurie” anymore. Mostly, I go by Gramma. Read More

"...the faithful will fight forever, no matter the cost." Read More

The first car I ever drove (at the age of 15—legal in Louisiana at the time) was my parents’ Pontiac GTO. Why a middle class Jewish family had such a car, I do not know, but I do remember that my boyfriend at the time liked to put it in neutral at stoplights so that… Read More

Save the Date My husband is an awful procrastinator,  but not me.   On the contrary,  I’m compulsive and sometimes I act TOO soon,  which I’ve learned can be just as problematic. There was the time I got a save-the-date for the out-of-town,  black-tie wedding of a friend’s son to be held on a date… Read More

My father was leaving the lecture hall when he stepped out of the doorway and a snowball—or more accurately, an ice ball—came hurling from the side and hit him directly across his open eye. Read More