Suprise Me

I’ll never forget that look in her eyes as she lay on the vet’s cold metal examining table. It was hard to look back. I felt like she was asking me, “Can I trust you? Am I going to be okay?” And I knew I was betraying that trust. She was going to die. I… Read More

Giving the graduates a mix tape of advice Read More

Autocorrect makes me crazy, always trying to improve on my pretty-perfect spelling. Like substituting the word ‘ass’ for ‘asp.’ Now why would it even bother?! Does it think I picked the wrong animal? And how will children ever learn to spell when Autocorrect cleans up after them? I have an editor’s eye for misspellings though… Read More

I rarely go to the beach, and when I do, I am generally either working on my suntan (I know, very dangerous, but I still do it) or cooling off in the water. I can’t remember ever bringing a book to the beach either as a child or as an adult. But I do like… Read More

Being first born, I got to do things first. Generally an advantage, but not always. Read More

Chipmunk We live in Manhattan and we will love the hustle and bustle of our city life,  but we also love communing with nature on weekends at our woodsy retreat in the Connecticut foothills.  (See Country Living, Wisdom in the Weeds,  and  Pickled) On one recent country weekend I came home from the market with a load… Read More

(Mom) was drawn to challenging recipes.  With mixed results.  Her sardine pie became the stuff of family legend, firmly anchoring the bottom end of the results scale. Read More

Before David had to devote his Tuesday and Thursday afternoons to Hebrew School, the Boston MFA offered a free art program for elementary school children several afternoons a week, open to all comers. We tried to go on Tuesdays as often as we could. It was funded by a foundation grant and was truly a… Read More

  Alright settle down there, Retros. Yes, let us talk about the television, the telly, the boob tube. Now, before you all start clutching your pearls and wailing about the “vast wasteland” that is television, à la Newton Minow, hear me out. Because amongst the endless parade of reality trash and brain-rotting sitcoms, there were… Read More

Pitcher and Bowl I’m a sucker for pitchers and bowls. Pitcher and bowl sets were first found in Victorian boudoirs where they were used as wash basins before the advent of indoor plumbing.  They’re still sought after as decorative pieces,  and I’ve always loved them. A few years ago I was in an antique shop… Read More