Unless I want to be an Edie, Big or Little, in an ersatz-colonial Grey Gardens,…
Threads Pulled from My Tapestry: For Leslie
In 1921, Pablo Picasso (1881-1973)—and the world at large it seemed—was at a turning point. The devastation of World War I had hollowed a generation of artists, of painters and sculptors, poets and musicians. Picasso himself turned forty, a moment when many pause,...
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...
Christmas Letter 2024
A new home, a new address, a new life. New Roommate Ping. She arrived at the Costco parking lot in Newington CT from Texas, late at night on August 23. The cheek swab says she is 67.3% Shih Tzu, 19.5% Lhasa Apso, and 13.2% small Poodle. A “shapsoodle.” I named her for...
Paul Caponigro 1932-2024
Obituaries mark with increasing insistence the evanescence of my own memories. A notice reminds me of this musician or that scholar or politician or athlete. On Friday, November 29, 2024, the day after Thanksgiving, it was the loss of the great photographer, Paul...