What a couple of weeks it’s been. Fifty people, including members of the Macy-Huffman and Mossimo-Loughlin families were charged with screwing deserving college applicants out of admission to schools where they may have thrived. It would have been the talk of Sunday shows in the US, but for the white male horror show at a … Continue reading Neighborhood readers talk books, eat cake: ‘Resistance Women’ Part II
Category: neighborhood
In 1989, I kicked off the freelance writing career that ended up tanking my marriage and catapulting me out of the middle class. (Or, to put it another way, I traded in one set of problems for another set that I liked better.) My book group. One of many joyful by-products of that trade-in. In … Continue reading Advance Reader’s Copies spark joy for local book group: A shoutout to William Morrow, Jennifer Chiaverini &, most of all, Mildred Fish Harnack
Life has never been better. Or more frustrating. Every morning, I wake up with a list of things to do and hardly any of them get done. Some of that is laziness. Some is fear, some is inertia. This house is in the neighborhood, but it carols at us, not the other way around. Also, … Continue reading Speak the truth & sing the songs: ups and downs of everyday life, Government shutdowns & Christmas carols
If anyone with a social media presence wants to see their blog stats tank, here’s my advice: Quit Facebook. Even though my blog is my gift to me, a place where I write what I want to in order to loosen myself up to write better and more freely and not about how many … Continue reading ‘Honoring Miss Pietsch’ or how a composer helped me get my house in order, featuring 1886 wallpaper
It’s been busy around here. Thanksgiving is in the rear-view mirror. Before that though, my faithful seven-year-old computer went kerflooey. Never mind that I had writing deadlines. Thankfully, I have an understanding editor. And over at the library, we are moving to reduced-service status for the next year or so while we get a new … Continue reading Real Apologies Matter: A brief stroll through Sexual Predator Apology Land
2016 is in the rear-view mirror. Last night, we attended a New Year’s Eve party at a house we’ve been lucky enough to be invited to for the past several Dec. 31sts. The host (a guy about my age) remarked that, “We’re old enough that the people who influenced us are starting to die off.” The observation was … Continue reading Strange rites of passage and no bullshit: Welcome, 2017!
Two days ago, I got a call from a number I didn’t recognize. The woman on the other end had a story idea for a paper for which I’ve done a lot of work. Her son, a local orthodontist, was recently back from a medical trip to Guatemala, where he and several other dentists had … Continue reading “We the People” attend a Listening Session: Polite Rage in Action
There are a lot of reasons I miss having a dog. Election season is one. Tuki used to come with me when I voted. She was also my candidate of choice on more than one occasion. I voted for Tuki when it was clear that, compared to the humans on a ballot, she would represent … Continue reading My Write-in Candidate is Dead and Reductive Disrespecters Want Your Brain: An Election Season Guide for the Perplexed
Being woken out of a sound sleep by angry screaming is not my favorite way to be woken up. I much prefer my usual way of being woken up – a hug and a kiss. Then, Sweetheart hands me a cup of hot coffee. Sometime after going to bed Saturday night and well before Sunday’s … Continue reading Screamers, speeders, and drawn guns: Just another night in the neighborhood
the sentence factory 