In the past week and a half, I became a grandmother for the first time, while simultaneously coping with my aging father, who was undergoing a serious health crisis. I'm still overwhelmed with emotion. Nothing could have prepared me for the love I feel for my little grandson, Rory, plump and… Read full post »

It was August, 1964. I had waited all summer for the unbelievable day when I was finally going to get to see the Beatles in the flesh. My freshman year had been spent huddled with my friends during breaks between classes, listening on miniature transistor radios with naugahide covers, to Beatles… Read full post »

I'm watching Rick Warren, tapped by Obama to give the convocation at his inauguration, as he compares the idea of gay marriage to pedophilia and polygamy. But he says it calmly and with a serene smile on his face, and he doesn't compare it to bestiality. I guess that makes him… Read full post »

All the glum economic talk is enough to make us want to fold up our Christmas trees and forget about the holidays. I've been thinking, though, about my grandparents, who lived in a kind of permanent recession, which raising nine kids will do. There was never enough money to go around,… Read full post »

Recently, in an "Open Letter to Oprah," I tweaked her very public sturm and drang about her weight. The strong response from other women made me stop and think about the formula employed so successfully by Oprah on her show, the same formula used by women's magazines to keep us on… Read full post »

Dear Oprah,

I just read the "shocking" news that you have gained forty pounds, and are, once again, officially fat. I'd like to say just one thing- Oprah, give yourelf a break, and while you're at it, give us a break, as well. Maybe it's about time you realized that your body… Read full post »

Pennsylvania governor Ed Rendell really put his foot in it when he said, over an open Mic this week, that Janet Napolitano would be great to head Homeland Security because she had "no life." He went on to bury himself further, explaining that because she had no family, she would be… Read full post »

I once saw family history driving by me in the parking lot of the local mall. Our old Chevy van, unmistakable, pale blue with a jaunty stripe. It was a little rusted on top, but other than that, it appeared to be in good shape. It had been our first new… Read full post »

It was the beginning of a time of extended death and destruction in our family. An older generation of aunts and uncles, to whom we were very close, was dying, and it wasn't pretty. Then it became sadly obvious that my mother, after the devastating loss of her sister, had begun… Read full post »

I've had a couple of requests for my mother's stuffing recipe, from "Thanksgiving in the Mojave", so I thought I'd post it separately. It's delicious, and a little unusual, in that it's a meat and bread stuffing, done Portuguese style-

 Jay Souza's Famous Stuffing

Ingredients-

loaf stale br… Read full post »

Camping in the Mojave desert, at Iron Mountain not far from Patton's Playground, about twenty years ago, I spent my most memorable Thanksgiving. Some of our best memories as a family are of shared camping trips to the beach, by a lake or in the desert. That Thanksgiving at Iron Mountain, we… Read full post »

As one of the Hillary harridans marginalized by the press, I have mixed feelings about Clinton being considered for Secretary of State. On the one hand, she'd be terrific. She's strong, tough as nails, really, and knowledgable. She would have no trouble commanding the world stage and the respect of t… Read full post »

I thought now that the election was over, it would mean the end of the daily Sarah Palin sightings. Little did I know it would only serve to liberate her to appear on every news and interview show known to man. The Palin publicity machine is unleashed, and lest we thought she… Read full post »

What a great night- Social change moves at a snail's pace and then lurches forward. Obama's election is a huge rebuke of racial prejudice, even as gay rights struggles, and is, perhaps, set back in California. It's ironic that African Americans overwhelmingly voted in favor of Prop 8, banning gay mar… Read full post »

I'm so glad this election is almost over, but I've learned to dread the results. If the Democrats, in general, and Obama, in particular, don't win this time as the poles predict, we'll know we live in a banana republic. I hope the election is won at the poles and not… Read full post »

I don't think the Press is biased against McCain. They've documented his transformation from the open, accessible guy on the "Straight Talk Express" to the man he is now, the angry, bumbling man who has seemed willing, even eager, to sell his soul in order to reach the office that's eluded… Read full post »

I have such a phobia about car shopping that I've been driving the same car since the early nineties, an '88 Camero with an engine and transmission rebuilt along the way. This sporty classic had served me well, until last year, when a maniac bashed in the side and the car… Read full post »

Conventional wisdom had it that Sarah Palin would be perceived to have done well in last night's debate if she didn't burst into flames onstage. The bar had been set so low by her pre debate interviews with Katy Couric and Charlie Gibson, that as long as she finished with a… Read full post »

I'm against the Irag war. I'm an American.

I'm against locking anyone up without due process. I'm an American.

I'm prochoice. I'm an American.

I believe in evolution. I'm an American.

I believe global warming is manmade. I'm an American.

I believe in Science! I'm an American.

Organized religion is no… Read full post »

Troopergate, blood feuds between families, battles with the librarian over scandalous books, shotgun weddings- I think I've seen this show before. Sarah Palin, first as mayor of her little municipality and then as governor, ruled as if she were the town boss, Boss Hogg in lipstick, you might say. She… Read full post »

There is an article in today's London Times, claiming that the McCain camp is planning a much publicized shotgun wedding between Sarah Palin's pregnant daughter and the unfortunate teenage father.  According to the article, they plan for it to take place a week or so before the wedding, in hopes… Read full post »

When did it all become so surreal? The characters in our little national psychodrama are simply not believable. We have the President, so out of touch and so beyond caring what happens, that he can't even feign real interest, as the country he has helmed for the last eight years finishes… Read full post »

I'm baking chocolate chip cookies at two in the morning, while I'm writing this blog. Before that, I worked a couple of hours on my novel. Chris Isaak is playing softly in the background and the world outside is quiet and dark. I think I might be the only person awake… Read full post »

My father fought in the Second World War, and was proud of his service. Now, at ninety-three, although his short term memory is faltering, his recollections of that time are amazingly vivid and detailed. He, like so many veterans of that war, came home with a sense of accomplishment and an… Read full post »

I walked away from the Catholic religion I was raised in at Confirmation (regarded by the church as a coming of age), and never looked back. That worked for my parents, because it was believed that everything I did from that time on, would be on my head, not theirs. This… Read full post »