Here’s a poem by one of my favorite writers, Sony Stark, aka Pilotgirl. She wrote it while sailing the Pacific aboard the MV Explorer: One day you finally knew what you had to do and began,though the voices around you kept shouting,though the whole house trembled,though the wind pried its […]
. New Hampshire State Senator Susan McLane taught me how to quiet a crying baby. She took my newborn daughter in her arms and walked around the room. Bingo. Quiet baby. She told me the secret was to “walk purposefully.” Senator McLane walked purposefully through life, and it was my […]
I’m having such a great time rereading Harry Golden’s three books Only in America, For Two Cents Plain, and Enjoy! Enjoy! I thumb through them, like reading the I Ching, and pick up all kinds of little nuggets of wisdom.These books are just full of amusing anecdotes from Aaron Burr’s […]
A friend has challenged me to write the shortest possible blog entry. For me that means an entry that will amuse or interest the reader with the fewest possible words. OK. Here goes: You are a reporter sent to cover a 100th birthday party for the resident of a nursing […]
Frank Sinatra paid a price for his lifelong commitment to equality and justice. He was accused of being a communist seven times by the House Unamerican Activities Committee, and the FBI tried to smear him, too — your tax dollars at work, or rather, your grandparents’ tax dollars at work, […]
My mom told me (Didn’t yours?) : “If you can’t say something nice, don’t say anything at all.” That’s why I have never said much about substitute teaching, which I have done a lot of in the last 30 years to try to make ends meet, a trick I have […]
Isaac Asimov once wrote an essay about the “Eureka Principle” which he applied when he was stuck on a problem with his plots or his characters. He’d put the problem out of his mind and go to the movies and the answer would come to him (or not). It was […]
This entry is about H. Rider Haggard’s two books about “She Who Must Be Obeyed” — She and Ayesha. OK now we know all we ever wanted to know about the Caves of Kôr — the potsherd, the head of the African, the ancient canal — and we’re getting beyond […]
A lot of people, including me, like Frank Sinatra’s singing. He’s a real professional and like Benny Goodman, he performed as a teenager, so by the time he reached his prime he was a consummate showman as well as a great singer. And when he went into acting, he went […]
. My blog has dropped back down to a Google rank of four. All because I’ve been with Ayesha in the caves of Kôr. I’ve been rereading She Who Must Be Obeyed by H. Rider Haggard and the sequel Ayesha a.k.a. Return of She Who Must Be Obeyed. I keep […]