October 16th, 2020 | Education, General, Politics, social media
“You know Bill Gates is trying to microchip all of us,” said the guy at the body shop when I was picking up my car. I honestly thought he was yanking my chain. We had just exchanged what I thought were joking words about information revealed by using my credit card. I...
October 13th, 2020 | Family, General, Holidays, Home Improvements, Politics, Time Passes
The flagstone patio at Nannie’s and Pop’s home in Hingham underlay the most wonderful wrought-iron furniture. The wheeled back legs of the chaises-longues allowed us to shift these monstrously heavy things relatively easily. Thick cushions in a floral fabric provided...
September 27th, 2020 | Europe, General, Health, Society at Large, Travel, United States
As of 8:00 pm March 30, 2020, Governor Hogan’s “Stay At Home” order went into effect. This is a deadly public health crisis—we are no longer asking or suggesting that Marylanders stay home, we are directing them to do so. No Maryland resident should be leaving their...
September 19th, 2020 | General, Politics, Women
The howl of fuck fuck fuck that tore from my heart and mouth on the morning of November 10, 2016 echoed again as I saw the headline on my cell phone. Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg was dead. The Best on the Bench She died on the first night of Rosh Hashanah. I...
August 14th, 2020 | Family, General, Politics, Society at Large
One of my favorite books when I was a child—one of my cherished books still—is a collection of stories by Hans Christian Andersen. “The Snow Queen: A Tale in Seven Stories” was one of the most ghoulish and frightening, and one of my favorites. A Fairy-Tale Pandemic A...
August 3rd, 2020 | Family, Friends, General, Health, Politics, Popular Culture
The Baltimore Sun provides a daily update of COVID19 infections and deaths across the state, breaking them out by counties and also by age and race/ethnicity. I look for that long, horizontal gray box and the Harford County numbers in my paper, without fail....