May 4th, 2025 | Changes, Family, Genealogy, General, Health, Loss
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...
April 21st, 2025 | Boston, General, History, Massachusetts, Politics
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...
March 27th, 2025 | Boston, General, Pets
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...
February 9th, 2025 | General, History, Politics, Society at Large
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,...
February 5th, 2025 | General, History, Politics, visual arts
Back in the late nineteen-sixties, I clipped a cartoon from The New Yorker, at a time that urban renewal was doing its worst in a variety of Boston neighborhoods. The picture was a pair of little old ladies sitting on a train, one speaking to the other. The caption...
January 1st, 2025 | Architecture and Design, Boston, Changes, General, Holidays, Popular Culture
First Night in Boston is a venerable event. Forty years ago, I was never motivated to brave the cold—it was always very cold. The temperatures, however, were mild this year and the ice sculptures—one of the most popular traditions—weren’t going to keep their...