Suprise Me

As my mother descended into dementia, her letters stopped, and we kept in touch through phone calls, increasingly with my father alone.  By the time my mother died, he had become my confidante and mutual support system. Read More

When I entered Brandeis, it still had a General Education requirement, so I had to take courses across varying disciplines, not only in my major of Theatre Arts. I wanted to get all those requirements done quickly, so freshman year, I took French 10 (all literature, read in French), Humanities 1 (all literature), Theatre Arts… Read More

Growing up, we learned a lot from TV, but we also just had a lot of kid fun with locally produced shows. Read More

Ulysses  Please don’t think I’m an insufferable literary snob if I tell you I’ve read Ulysses several times.   But in fact I have,  and I think it’s indeed a masterpiece,  and not at all as hard to read and understand as you may have been led to believe.  (See My Love Affair with James Joyce)… Read More

When I first met him, I was living at the Villa Roma, a sweet little rose-pink courtyard apartment on a tree-lined street. Problem was, there was almost never a place to park. I might sit in front of my apartment for up to an hour waiting for someone to leave, then grab their spot. One… Read More

"Dave Ventre? Did you have Dr. Edwards at FDU?" Read More

Boticelli could not have painted an angel more lovely than Angela. Read More

I tied piles of accumulated newspapers together to form a solid block of newspaper, which I used as a guest stoop. Read More

Growing up in a neighborhood in Detroit full of kids, Halloween was a big deal. My dad would carve the pumpkin in the scrub sink in the basement. We also lived a few blocks from two large cemeteries, so it really was spooky. We ran in packs from house to house, holding our breath. Houses… Read More

I look at this photo and sigh. This was my family’s Thanksgiving table seventy years ago. I’m the second child on the left, sharing a meal with two generations now gone. In fact, my dear cousin sitting directly across from me has also died. But the tradition of sharing a meal with folks you love… Read More