Tradition! As a child I heard Yiddish spoken by my European-born grandparents and my first-generation American parents,  yet I never had the curiosity to learn to speak it myself. But my parents subscribed to New York’s Yiddish theatre company,  the Folksbiene,  and I’d go with them and follow the plays by reading the English supertitles.… Read More

My Father,  the Outsider Artist  My father Arthur was a wise and quite a wonderful guy,  but I don’t remember him doling out wisdom or advice very often.  Rather he taught by example – he was a man of integrity,  warmth,   and an overwhelming kindness,  although he also had some rather annoying idiosyncrasies!    (See… Read More

Celebrate Me Home I first heard the moving Kenny Loggins song Celebrate Me Home when my husband and I attended a weekend retreat run by a human potential movement called Lifespring.  (See Parkchester, Celebrate Me Home) I can’t say that weekend radically changed my life as the workshop leader promised,  but it did make me think about the real… Read More

Jessie’s 79th Like most kids I had a yearly birthday party,   and then like many girls of my generation a Sweet Sixteen. In later years we had a wonderful celebration for my son’s 13th birthday at his bar mitzvah.   (see Ghostwriting in the Family) And later a fun party for my husband’s 60th at… Read More

The Wheat Field My grandparents emigrated from eastern Europe,  and my parents lived through a world war – my father sent overseas while my mother worked for the Army on the homefront.  (See Parkchester, Celebrate Me Home) And like all families there were skeletons in the closet,  and there were suicides on both sides that… Read More

Night Owl I’ve always been a night owl,  but once ready for bed I don’t remember having trouble falling asleep – until lately. Blame it on aging,  or Covid concerns,  or worrying about the fate of the planet,  but lately there are nights I toss and turn until the wee hours. So what do I… Read More

My Brown-Eyed Girl I wear reading glasses, and have had the requisite cataract surgeries,   yet over the years I haven’t given much thought to my eyeglasses or to my changing vision.   But I have thought about the color of my eyes. In Rogers and Hammerstein’s musical masterpiece Carousel, the carnival barker Billy Bigelow soliloquizes about… Read More

The Dinner Party I’ve written about my mother Jessie before and some of the things she’s told me – among them how to approach difficult tasks,  and how to rectify mistakes made – and I try to heed her words.   (See  My Game Mother, Elbow Grease   and Art Imitates Life) Jessie was a high school… Read More

The artist in her studio,  Goshen,  CT Danielle Mailer,  Artist Extraordinaire I love art but I don’t think of myself as a real collector,  although I do have three Danielle Mailers! Several years ago we were invited to an auction fundraiser by our friend H.  At the time he was director of Wellspring,  a residential… Read More

Dangerous! I read banned books – to protest their banning of course,  but also because they’re invariably such good reads! As you may know,  countless modern classics have been banned or challenged at one time or another,  among them The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn,  As I Lay Dying,  Beloved,  The Catcher in the Rye,  The Color… Read More