it’s life
knot so much
While life hands all of us an ongoing series of knotty issues and tangled messes, I appear to have taken the concept to a new level (a dubious distinction). Some mildly embarrassing examples, slapstick knot-withstanding: The hooded pullover sweatshirt. No matter how I try (arms first, head first, whatever), I still manage to get lost in the garment […]
not a pretty picture
Don’t you hate it when you’re in a store and there’s a child throwing a tantrum? And by “child” I don’t literally mean a kid — I mean a salesperson who is just so rude that you have to fight the urge to send them to their room to think about what they’ve done. Case […]
lucy bakes a cake
While there are those who believe that you can “have your cake and eat it too,” my recent chocolate-cake-baking experience reminds me that the having part isn’t always as easy as it looks. To wit: as I’ve mentioned in a previous post, my friend G.’s chocolate cake is a thing of sublime yum. Two layers of just-right […]
laugh. until you cry.
When Robin Williams left us earlier this week, it felt like being hit with a sucker punch to the gut. The man who could make millions of us laugh so hard that we cried exited stage right, but this time with no comic relief. Only tears. And the unanswerable “why?” To use the word “irony” here seems hopelessly […]
two from the heart
He was shy. She was not. She was poor. He was poorer. He was Giants. She was Yankees. He loved the movies. She loved him. She adored Sinatra. He adored her. He gave a mutual friend a Mel Ott baseball card in exchange for introducing him to her. She went on a first date with him because her […]
on the road (again)
So here we are, on the verge of another of our signature summer vacations — the great, and greatly underrated, road trip. Over several years of hitting the road for destinations as varied as Utah (five national parks, one really mean case of stomach flu); the Oregon coast; and Taos, New Mexico (including a run-in […]
heart beats
It was a pretty good crowd for a Thursday — about 20,000 people tucked into the Hollywood Hills as evening turned to night, anticipating the appearance at the Hollywood Bowl of a man most of us there grew up with. An artist whose music is a running commentary on love and life, casual moments at an […]
write? wrong.
When you’ve spent your career as a copywriter – one who writes advertising – there are five small words you’ve come to despise: “I’m not a writer, but …” Whether they are uttered by an account person (reaction: snarl), an art director (reaction: hmmm…) or a client (reaction: sure, I’d love to have your input […]
batter up
When it comes to planning the future, some people read fortune cookies. Some read horoscopes. I read menus. Breakfast menus, to be exact. It seems that whenever B. and I have had some kind of major life decision to make, we’ve figured it out over Sunday breakfasts out. To wit: When we were still doing […]
rice on your head 