I am good—pretty good—at keeping my hands in my pockets or clasped behind my back…
Christmas Books: Sometimes It’s Right
I have been giving books to the young ones in my circle since the late 1970s. Around that time my sister adopted a two-year-old girl. A brother fathered his first son. The older child of an English friend appeared on the auspicious date of April 1, 1977. Keeping Track...
Covid-19 and America’s Health-Care Failure
Covid-19 cases are on the rise again. I know. I—the poster child for vaccinations—have got it. Apparently last June the Center for Disease Control, when it updated its variant tracker, identified it as NB.1.8.1., which they are calling “Nimbus.” It’s not an apt...
Trump Redux 3: Disturb the Comfortable
Banksy didn’t say it first. “To Comfort the Disturbed, and to Disturb the Comfortable” is the title of a poem published by poet, activist, and educator César A. Cruz in 1997. It makes sense, however, that Banksy’s murals do exactly that. Tyrants hate art. Real art,...
How many technicians does it take to make a TV app work?
It started last March, so a tick over two months ago. I thought I’d watch some television and that almost always means something on PBS Passport. So I reached for the remote and suddenly, instead of my personal list of programs, I encountered the following message:...
Inevitable Asymmetry
Until late on May 2, our sibling group was always symmetrical. There were two girls and two boys. The girls were the elder, the boys were the younger. The Change On May 1, 2025—or was it April 30?—the boy who lived sometimes on his boat and relied on the hospitality...
Trump Redux 2: Independence from Tyranny
April 18 was the 250th anniversary of that day, when, in the literary imagination of Henry Wadsworth Longfellow (1807-1882) Paul Revere “spread the alarm.” He said to his friend, “If the British march By land or sea from the town to-night, Hang a lantern aloft in the...
Adventures with Ping 01: Getting to Know Her
Ping is my first “rescue.” I committed to the adoption sight unseen and she traveled to Newington, Connecticut, all the way from Corpus Christi, Texas. I trusted the organization and the foster-mom. What the heck. I really wanted—I needed—what my friend Gary calls a...
Trump Redux: Our Democracy is His Heresy
On March 25, 2002, my husband Dan and I stopped in the town of Béziers during a tour through France. It’s a wonderful spot in the Languedoc, buildings crowding up the steep hill that borders the Orb River. The Cathedral of St.-Nazaire is visible from every side,...