My mother set tight limits on me when I was young. I was not trendy. I did not wear go-go boots, Mondrian dresses, Twiggy eyelashes. She didn’t let me pierce my ears when all my friends did. I did not have a blunt cut “Sassoon” hairstyle. I didn’t go ga-ga over the boy bands of… Read More

Dan needed his Brigham’s vanilla ice cream! I had finished all the grocery shopping for Thanksgiving days earlier. The last place I wanted to be at 4pm on the day before Thanksgiving last year was a big supermarket, but Dan wanted his Brigham’s! So I dutifully trekked the mile to the Star Market, grabbed up… Read More

While visiting David in London in February, 2016, we took a train out to see Bletchley Park where Alan Turing and the “code breakers” developed the system to decipher the German codes during World War II, as depicted in “The Imitation Game”. Turing is considered one of the founders of modern computer science and we… Read More

  I have never worn my “heart on my sleeve”. We’ve given a LOT of money in this campaign cycle, more than at any time in the past. We truly believe this IS the most important election of our lifetime. I have the date early voting starts for Massachusetts marked in my calendar, though my… Read More

A show-stopping number from “Bye-Bye Birdie”, in which I played Randi in 10th grade, is “The Telephone Hour”. Staged better in the theater than in the truly awful movie, it shows all the teenagers, posing in a multi-level platform-cubicle, gossiping on their princess telephones: “Hi Margie, Hi Helen, What’s the story, morning glory? What’s the… Read More

  I’ve always had lousy feet. As a child I had to wear “orthopedic shoes” with arch support in them (saddle shoes in the summer, some black velveteen things in the winter, but always heavy, laced up shoes). Never sneakers, never sandals. Not enough support. I rebelled in 6th grade, while my mother was in… Read More

Mother died three days before her 97th birthday. I described my relationship with her, and her last six days of life in much detail in What I Didn’t Tell You Then. I knew the people at the funeral home in Detroit quite well. The owner, Herb Kaufman, lived around the corner from us in Huntington Woods.… Read More

Jeffrey (now Vicki, but not in 2002, so, for purposes of this story, I will refer to my younger child as Jeffrey) was a non-believer. He told us at the age of 3 he didn’t believe in God. I still wanted him to go through with religious education to understand his background, his place in… Read More

I know the perception is that I have excellent recall of events long-past, but trust me when I tell you, this is a mere shadow of how I used to be. I already know I am losing it. Part of this is due to a migraine prevention medication I’ve long taken called Topamax. It is… Read More

From about 1539 BC to around 1075 BC, the Valley of the Kings, in ancient Thebes, was the burial site for the rulers and some nobility of ancient Egypt. Though known about, the exact whereabouts had been lost through the ages, until archaeological excavations led by Europeans during the time of Napoleon began in the… Read More