Blog
First off: A note to my faithful “fans:” For more than three months Word Press was mad at me and I couldn’t get here to write. It’s been exasperating because everyone who knows me knows I spout words nonstop utilizing my vocal cords…or my keyboard. Making comments on various social media sites can be somewhat…
I’ve had a lifelong crush on Robert Redford. It began when John and I saw Barefoot in the Park (1967). Butch Cassidy and The Sting are all-time favorites, of course. But also, for me, The Natural, The Candidate (so prescient!), Jeremiah Johnson (heartbreaking), The Hot Rock(hilarious), The Great Waldo Pepper and The Milagro Beanfield War…
EVERY MOMENT IS A MASTERPIECE. PAY ATTENTION.
A friend send a text from New York. She was at the Frick Collection and thrilled to be seeing three paintings by Johannes Vermeer in one place! I immediately recalled the day we visited the Louvre in Paris. I followed the fold-out map to find this painting: The Lacemaker–the only treasure by Johannes Vermeer in…
For the past few weeks we have been enthusiastically counting the caterpillars munching on the native milkweed we planted in pots along our driveway—doing our best to support the declining population of Monarchs butterflies, worldwide. Since time immemorial our California Monarchs have followed a migration pattern that finds them wintering in Mexico. They return here,…
I have a good friend who told me she was thrilled when Donald Trump eked out a win last November. I was stunned at her enthusiasm. “Why?” I asked. Topping her list: the deportation of illegal immigrants. “Our grandparents were legal.” She reminded me. “Our grandparents came to America in the 19-teens…before there were quotas…
John and I walk past the National Guard Armory in our neighborhood every day. Yesterday morning, we noted that the parking lot was full, which meant that the soldiers were assembling. We saw uniformed personnel readying communication trailers; beside it a truck with a big Red Cross on the side. Today, those vehicles are gone….
An article in Saturday’s LA Times about Maronite Catholics and their dying language sparked a vivid memory of attending a Church service at the Maronite Church in West Roxbury, Massachusetts, many years ago. My father’s family…Arab Christians…emigrated to the U.S. in 1913. Their village Jdita, Lebanon, is on the road from Beirut to Damascus. Back…
Ticket stubs. Letters. Cards. Calendars. Programs. Coupons. Clippings. Receipts. Postcards. Documents. Photographs. Scraps of paper inscribed with handwritten notes or lists—some hopelessly illegible. Everything else relegated to be out of sight, out of mind until the mythical far-off day “when I have time.” Why have I felt compelled to save so much stuff over the…
Last Saturday, I attended a Tea where Vanda Krefft spoke about her book—a history of the Katharine Gibbs School. Invited by a good friend, I enthusiastically accepted. The Tea was a fundraiser for the local AAUW (American Association of University Women) scholarship program. Plus, I had a special interest in the topic. Krefft spoke about…
Don’t Just Sit There Scrolling: Do Something!
Good grief, I don’t want to be writing about Donald Trump. I have so many other things I want to do with my days. I have a book I’m trying to get published. I have bins and bins of papers I dragged from Milton, Massachusetts, to Manhattan Beach, California, ten years ago. These are things…