December 12th, 2020 | Family, General, Health, Holidays, Politics, Society at Large
How is one supposed to really grasp the number of those infected and killed by COVID19? There have been 71,401,780 cases confirmed globally, as of December 12 and 1,600,807 deaths. In the United States, 15,939,022 have fallen ill and 296, 656 have died. These are...
December 4th, 2020 | Family, Gardens and Gardening, General, Holidays, Home Improvements, Society at Large, the world and Mother Nature, Time Passes
Is everyone still there? How to recount the year’s doings when we have done largely nothing? My favorite word–one of the three Oxford Languages chose for Word Of The Year–is “Blursday.” It perfectly describes the mush that time has become. Last year and...
November 28th, 2020 | General, Holidays, Politics
It is Thanksgiving and it is meet that I should count my blessings. Good Things and Silver Linings Despite the explosive rates of COVID infections, the disease has not breached our defenses. Nor has my Tattooed Boy fallen victim despite his return to his workplace. An...
November 7th, 2020 | General, Politics
November 3, midafternoon Election Day. I have distracted myself with gardening, grocery shopping, a little laundry. We are all anxious, unnerved. I can almost hear the scratch of pens, and the thunk of the machines ingesting ballots, at the polls. Analyses favor the...
October 19th, 2020 | General, Memory, Politics, Popular Culture, Society at Large
As my Dear One and I strolled beneath blue October skies over gilded foliage, I asked if he thought Joe Biden would win the election. He said yes with a fair amount of confidence. I think Biden will prevail, myself. That is certainly my hope. A Democratic victory...
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...
