Category: Culture

The Gauntlet

I love flying out of small airports… There is nothing better than the 15 foot walk from entryway to checkin. Don’t get me wrong — I still reminisce about the Heathrow days, when long security lines snaked around the coffee shops and purse boutiques, and that was even before you the entered security rope maze.…

Diametric Adoration

In the middle of my procrastination/break from grading, I visited my email and Google reader and found good stuff from two different women in my life… oh they make me SO crazy! First, there’s HEATHER! Heather the green wonder-mama, now appearing in ANOTHER feature near you! I’ve done some freelance work for Heather, so she’s…

The Perfect Marriage: TiVo and Netflix

My husband, maybe to mock my attachment to my typewriter, or maybe just to give me the good news, sent me this article, today. It breaks the much-awaited news (at least around our place) that two of the greatest entertainment inventions: TiVo and Netflix, are going to join forces. This is akin to the Wonder…

For the Love of Jonatha and Woody

The Genius on my iPod might as well just say “Awesome Singer Songwriters Need Only Apply.” It is constantly shuffling around Chapin and Lyle, Pink Martini and Tom Waits, Emmylou and Patti Griffin, Catie Curtis and the Tragically Hip. And, of course, Jonatha. I’ve got other music dappled on the lists, but it is just…

The Shape of a Woman

I caught of glimpse of myself — el nudo — in a full length mirror the other day and stopped. “Hmmm, not bad.” Not as bad as I thought, anyway. I hardly ever see myself full length, especially without clothes, and I bet most women don’t. The mirrors where we get intimate are the ones…

Danny Wallace’s Cup of Tea

Dear Danny, I just wanted to send you a note to tell you that I was thinking about you. I’ve got the kettle on and it happens that way. Whenever I go to make my second cup of tea (especially on a cloudy day), I think of your “another cup of tea and biscuits” moments…

The Air Up There

How to Act Like an Elitist Although I do like to rant, I try not to “talk politics” around this space. This has to do with my fear of “alienating” people. Let’s face it, not that many people read this blog! I can’t take any chances! But I am fired up! Read on! Sam Harris,…

The Greatest Circus Showman on Earth

P.T. Barnum creates the “Original Family Entertainment” With the Circus blogtour at MomCentral.com underway, I wanted to make sure I took time to visit the P.T. Barnum Museum in Bridgeport, CT. Ringling Bros. circuses are touring the nation right now, and in just a few weeks, the Ringling show “Bellobration” will be coming home to…

British Columbia Tour, Part two

I forgot to post the rest of our photos from our trip to Canada, so if anyone is interested, here they are. After we left Jasper, we took the Skeena train (two days) through Prince George and stayed overnight there, (Hi uncle Lloyd and Aunt Jackie!) then on to Prince Rupert. There we picked up…

Roadtrip, Alberta and British Columbia, 2008

Colin and I travel a lot, but usually in fits and starts. The last long, proper holiday we took was to Egypt. This time around Colin took me, along with my parents, on a tour of western Alberta and British Columbia, his homeland. Below is a slideshow of the images of the first half of…

Hiking at Weir Farm, Wilton

I went hiking at Weir farm National Historic Site recently with some friends from a hiking meetup. The site includes old farm buildings and a huge acreage of gardens and forest. We hiked around Weir Pond and into the woods. it was early evening in the summer and the light was very pretty coming through…

A Summer Affair Review: Novel as Cop-Out

Elin Hilderbrand’s A Summer Affair, is supposed to be a beach read. You know this because there is an image of two cute pairs of feet kissing in the sand on the book’s cover. The fact that this layered, well-structured and sometimes thoughtless novel is supposed to be a beach read indicates a complication not…

A Wopat Affair

Last night, I went to see A Catered Affair at the Thomas Kerr Theatre on Broadway. This was a fluke: one of the board members where I work called and said she had spare tickets for that evening, so I was off on the train to the city a few hours later. Tom Wopat was…

WSHU – A “Very Special Fundraiser”

Interrupting my A.M. snoozing time/Morning Edition listening hour this morning was Kate Remington of WSHU’s classical music morning telling me that she’d gotten to work early this morning for “a very special fundraiser.” Memorial Day weekend marked our one year anniversary back in the U.S., our return to National Public Radio. I love NPR. I…

Catbuses Need Love Too

I try not to love the internet as much as I do, but there are so many good reasons. Here’s another good reason to check it out. Not only can you buy secondhand things on Craigslist, you can buy all sorts of things you never knew you might not be able to live without.