So, you might have read Francis Lam's cookbook review over there on Big Salon.

(No? Then go read it. I'll wait.)

Right, about Dorie Greenspan's "Around My French Table"--all I can say is, oh yes. It really is that wonderful.

It's not like I needed another cookbook, but I kept hearing… Read full post »

I don't have much luck with ghosts. Or UFOs. Or any other fascinating apparitions and unexplained phenomena.

Some of my friends, however.....

Let's see: Recently, when my friend Carol was washing her hair, she heard her mother singing an old hymn. (Mom died about 4 years ago. Still has a ni… Read full post »

I know, I'm crazy. I still have a land line. Even better, I can remember the phone number of my childhood (MOhawk 1-3509).

But I digress.

So, here I am, minding my own damn business, doing what I normally do (wait, what is it I do? I'll get back to you on… Read full post »

Oh, those nasty comments. Those nasty nasty comments on Big Salon, on Huffington Post, on Slate, on ... well, just about everywhere.

Oh, how we worry when we get them, when we read them, when we write them. Oh, worry worry worry.

Oh, how we worry that they signify Something Big, Someth… Read full post »

I've been eavesdropping again.... 

Where:  My local Borders.

Who: A little girl, about 5, and an older woman in her 70s. They are not related.

Why: There seems to be a problem with a partially eaten bagel.

Older Woman: That's the money that we would have spent on the… Read full post »

She always carried a tide table in her purse.

She was the kind of person who took in strays--both people and animals.

She could walk into a room full of strangers and know everyone's name by the time she left.

She was exuberant, intense, irreverent.

She made sure her… Read full post »

1. It will take you all of 10 minutes to learn another dog's name.

2. It will take you a good 10 weeks to learn the name of that dog's owner.

3. You will talk about dog poop more than you ever thought was possible.

4. Dogs really do have… Read full post »

Green as I would have you be,

Green wind. Green boughs,

The boat on the sea.

--From "Walking Asleep" by Federico Garcia Lorca

Well, that's very nice, Mr. Garcia Lorca, but what about my tomatoes? 

Green is not what I would have them be, and green is what th… Read full post »

Last year, when my oldest brother turned 70, brother No. 2 and I pulled together some family photos for a collage. It turned out well, with many photos of all three of my siblings.

There weren't that many pictures of me, though. In fact, if you didn't know better,… Read full post »

Bud is waving as we drive away. I am 6 and am waving back, energetically, as young children will. Things are about to change. In just a few years, Miami-Dade Community College will build its Kendall Campus right down the road, and acres of palmetto bushes and pine trees will… Read full post »

"Ten ears for a dollar," my husband says. "I remember 13 for a dollar, but that may have been the time Mom and I picked our own in that field out on the edge of the Everglades," I respond.

It's that time of year. We're frustrated--sufficiently frustrated enough to begin dusting… Read full post »