Author Archives

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  • Summer vacation

    Summer vacation. August 2022: We are heading north on I-81 in Virginia, the Subaru stuffed full with every potential vacation accoutrement: folding chairs, bottles of wine, citronella candles. Pat is driving. Every 25 miles, he asks me how excited I… Read More ›

  • Dead Poets Society and Me

    Gather ye Rose-buds while ye may, Old Time is still a-flying:And this same flower that smiles to day, Tomorrow will be dying. Robert Herrick I’ve been quite ill. The sort of illness where you can’t get out of bed. Can’t… Read More ›

  • My September Song

    “Keep warm old man,” the boy said. “Remember, we are in September.” “The month when the great fish come,” the old man said. “Anyone can be a fisherman in May.” Ernest Hemingway The Old Man and the Sea Alas, I’m… Read More ›

  • Making our Way

    Paris. Wednesday morning. May 11, 2022. 8AM There’s a communal newspaper on the zinc bar. Every few minutes a new patron enters, browses the headlines, tosses back an espresso, races out to join the race. Families come and go. Kids… Read More ›

  • Following my nose

    Perhaps it began with my grandmother’s elaborately themed birthday cakes that made me feel sooo special. Or my mother’s simply-the-best apple pies that she baked every single holiday—plus one extra to savor the next morning for breakfast. Or maybe it’s… Read More ›