When I introduce him to one of my friends, DH has been known to exclaim, “I am the luckiest man alive!” Apparently this form of introduction makes quite an impression on people. The new acquaintance finds it charming and such a sweet thing to say. Me? How do I find it? Laden with subtext. Here’s […]
There Is Now
It’s almost prohibitively embarrassing to cite the source of this story. Almost, but not quite. It’s from Robert Fulghum’s book Uh-Oh. Robert Fulghum, the minister who wrote Everything I Need to Know I Learned in Kindergarten. There, I said it. The story is about schoolboy Norman. Norman’s class was putting on a performance of Cinderella. […]
Bad Bad Beef
This phrase was the wifi password at a friend’s house. A nerdy friend. Why is this nerdy, and not, say, vegetarian? Bad bad beef uses only the first six letters of the alphabet. In hexadecimal, badbadbeef is 802549513967. Fascinating. The last few days, the phrase is on repeat in my head. Tuesday night I cooked […]
MLK Jr. Day Greetings
It’s MLK Jr. Day. What’s the appropriate greeting, “Happy MLK Day”? That doesn’t seem right to me. I was raised in a family that observed the major Jewish holidays. I was taught the majors were the “high holidays” (Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur) and Passover. I have a vague and possibly incorrect memory of being […]
Dear, Dear
I love advice columns. My favorite part of reading Dear Abby is laughing about whether someone I know is the correspondent. For example: Dear Abby: My calico cat, Rosie, seems to be fixated on my next-door neighbor Ron. Every morning Rosie grooms herself for an hour, then jumps in the window to watch for Ron…. […]
Late August: Blackberry Thoughts
Photo Credit: @AlfieDies on Twitter, June 16, 2020 Earlier this year, I read the lovely volume The Point of Poetry by Joe Nutt. I had read a few of the poems in that book before, but not many. Seamus Heaney’s “Blackberry-Picking” was a new one for me. The first few lines: Late August, given heavy […]
Hurricane Laura?
It’s a special week to be a Laura, as we might be getting our hurricane this week. As of this writing, it is still just Tropical Storm Laura, but with a Laura, you never know. And thus, it was a good week to read Laura Lippman’s recent book of personal essays, My Life as a […]
Chartreuse Dining Room Chairs
Richard Russo writes in his memoir, Elsewhere: One of the sadder truths of childhood is that children, lacking the necessary experience by which to gauge, are unlikely to know if something is abnormal or unnatural unless an adult tells them. In the 1970s, my family had chartreuse vinyl upholstered dining room chairs. Chartreuse vinyl? Not […]
A Friend’s Blessing
Overheard, from a friend: May miracles come your way often, and especially today. This is a perfect, all-purpose blessing, and I wanted to offer it to my blog readers. A few of you are nodding in agreement. The other few are saying, “miracle, schmiracle.” You know who you are. One the first five posts on […]
Fueled by Indignation
Shortly after I started as division chair in 2017, Exemplary Girlfriend checked in with me: How are you? How is life as division chair? Are you mired in bureaucracy? Or pleasantly surprised? My response: I am good. A little manic, actually. Mired doesn’t quite capture it. More like frenetic. Every day there is some new […]