it’s life
what’s up, doc?
If feeling under the weather is a euphemism for feeling just plain crappy, then I’ve spent the last few days feeling sleety. With little to no chance of sun. Just a winter cold with all the inherent symptoms — but enough to make even thinking a huge ordeal. As someone who doesn’t take well to […]
bowl-a-rama
If you’re of a certain age and grew up in a certain time and place (let’s say 1960s suburbia), there’s a good chance that your mom’s kitchen included Pyrex mixing bowls of a certain pattern. In our house, it was the turquoise and white bowls of graduated sizes featuring a farmer-and-his-wife design (little-girl me always […]
for love of the game
To me, watching someone do what they love — and do it so amazingly because of their talent and affinity for it — is truly a rush. Kobe knocking down the 3-point playoff shot at the buzzer, Peyton throwing the perfect (and perfectly impossible) touchdown pass, Shaun literally defying gravity as he rides the half […]
clearing skies
At the risk of dating myself, there’s a song by Dire Straits that I absolutely love called Why Worry? And it’s one particular lyric, as well as Mark Knopfler’s amazing guitar riffs, that sets it apart in my mind: “There should be laughter after pain / There should be sunshine after rain / These things have always been […]
the facts of life
A dear friend recently lost his mother and asked for assistance in writing her eulogy. Not something you get asked to do very often (hopefully) and not something to be taken lightly. As his mom was not someone I knew well, he supplied me with background information about her life. And from there, I wrote […]
eye on the ball
As this year’s World Series winds down to its final game or two, and the boys of summer and the Mr. Octobers walk off into the sunset for another season, America’s favorite pastime leaves the diamond until next spring. I, for one, love the romance of baseball — but some of the rules of the […]
up on the roof
Dear Guy on the Roof: I’m sorry if our trying to sleep (in the apartment just below where you are hanging out on the roof with your date at 2 a.m.) is intruding on your privacy, but I can’t help but overhear every word you are saying in full voice (as well as the clomping […]
baby and the blouse man
Many, many movies capture the essence of growing up in New York. Many capture the New York Jewish experience perfectly. And a few go so far as to bring to life a part of that experience that flourished in the ’50s and ’60s in a place known as the Catskills. Some background: Located a couple […]
don’t take any shirt from anyone
The numbers are awful. One in four women will be the victim of domestic violence in her lifetime. That means if your book group includes seven other women, two of them might suffer. If you’ve got three besties, one of the four of you could end up seriously hurt or worse. And your daughter’s cheerleading […]
breaking bread with bernie
Whenever I make a sandwich on rye bread, I think of my father-in-law, Bernie. Why rye? Because one of my husband’s nicest growing-up memories is of he and his dad stopping at the bakery to pick up the loaf of fresh-baked rye bread that his mom had asked for — and then managing to eat […]
rice on your head 