Where I ramble on about people who are famous, a few whom I know and have met.
I’m driven mad by the meticulous. That doesn’t make me admire them any less, however, or realize that they, in the end, will always succeed. Case in point, the magnificent stone-man, Lew French. One rock at a time, he creates magnificent walls, fireplaces, cottages. One wall, in a home on Martha’s Vineyard, took him a…
Across the Gulf from La Casa Azul, this Monday Late morning I am thinking of you, Frida. My sister’s just called and We Facetimed, her lying flat on her Back on her bed, phone in midair Me slurping lukewarm coffee in my Second cousin-in-law’s second home and the chatter Echoes off textured walls until we…
It’s all too easy to put off loving where we are until everything is perfect. What can you love about where you are now? Blergh. If I were a weather man, that’s how I would describe the weather today. Cold, damp, rainy, grey. It’s all about the view. I look out my window and what…
Because I forgot to take the bacon out of the freezer Christmas Eve, I got the chance to see “Love, Actually” again this year. It just so happens that this is the 10th anniversary of the film, and for some reason that means that people are thinking/talking about it and revisiting their dusty opinions of…
A little poem of mine is published this quarter in Boston Literary Magazine. (yay!) I’m only bragging a little, because it’s funny to go prancing about saying “Oh look at me! I got a poem published,” … because I hardly ever update my Facebook status with the more common haiku news of my life: Rejection…
I am a convert to homemade deodorant! Back in June my friend Alma Schneider (that’s her–> isn’t she adorable?) whipped up this little tub of her recipe for me. She said: “Just try it! I SWEAR it works!” Eh. I wasn’t convinced. However, I ate ACTUAL raw red onions in her curried lentil salad (and…
I’ve been on an emotional roller coaster lately. Like many people (read: everyone) I know, I eat to feel “better.” Lately, the go-to food of choice for easing emotional bumps is the Cinnamon Crunch Bagel from Panera. — I accidentally remembered that Panera existed recently when I started going to the gym the next town…
From my “For Writers, By Writers” Series I bow deeply to pro-bloggers who keep the art of blogging closest to its journaling roots. My favorite pro-blogger is the erasible “Pioneer Woman,” Ree Drummond. Here are the five reasons why “Pioneer Woman” swallows entire mornings. 1. Personal. It’s the way that blogs are intended. Ree slathers…
Grateful this morning, at 4:30 a.m., for Colin’s choice of 52″ inch HD. Eschewing Jon Stewart’s cynicism, for blogs on exotic millinery. Sharing the Royal Love feels sweet, pure; held whole A soft, cold, unpeeled orange. I am a Londoner again, today, splayed spread eagle In St. James Park at noontime– Between meetings– Hogging first slices of…
I swam the full length, freestyle, for the first time last night. I came up at the deep end to the cheers of Latoya, Paul, and Dan — my support team — at Flood Pool. On the way home, I heard Faith Middleton interviewing one of my favorite environmentalist writers, Bill McKibben. Only he wasn’t…
I’ll be the first to say that I love James Franco. His mute performances on SNL skit “What Up With That?” always tickle me. But let’s be real. He wasn’t the REAL star of the Oscar duo last night. There’s going to be all sorts of mumbling and grumbling about the Oscar hosting duo in…
The #reverb10 final prompt from Molly O’Neill asked “What is your core story?” Being a huge fan of The Moth, and Eddie Izzard, and loving to hear people rattle off stories about their hilarious trip here and there — and being a writer naturally — I am perplexed and in awe of storytellers. I can…
Cinnamon rolls have to be one of my favorite foods. Over at Pioneer Woman this morning I was drooling at her recipe for Chocolate Chip Cookie Sweet Rolls. The recipe even starts from the yeast, and not from a blue can you tear paper off of and bang on the counter’s edge. Man, I like…
Only once do we have the chance to ACTUALLY be brand new. We arrive on the earth, sticky and discombobulated, completely unprepared for all this light and noise. From then on, we are experienced. We’ve seen it all. So we have to do all manner of contortions to reinvent ourselves. The book I am reading…
As a professor (all right! just an adjunct…) of rhetoric, I can spot and identify logical fallacy when I see one. So did the awesome BlagHag blogger Jen McCreight when a Muslim cleric managed to twist the logic so profoundly of protecting women from their own immodesty that he accidentally predicted that free-moving, free-ranging cellulite…
