Soul Collage I retired over 10 years ago and since then I gained over 20 pounds,  and try as I might,  I couldn’t seem to lose them. It’s understandable – at my age loosing pounds and inches is hard,  I’m not a gym rat (in fact we have a treadmill in our apartment which collects… Read More

B. Smith I was so sorry to learn of the recent death of restaurateur Barbara Smith at age 70 after a decade-long and very public battle with Alzheimer’s.   She and her husband chronicled their years living with the disease in their book Before I Forget. I had followed Barbara’s career since she was a… Read More

Black Tie Optional As I’ve aged I’ve certainly gotten more forgetful,   but the truth is I’ve always suffered a bit from that condition.  In fact over the years there’ve been many times my forgetfulness had some unfortunate or embarrassing consequences.   One recent December it happened again after we got a wedding invitation from… Read More

Ferdando’s Fritattas When my son Noah was in high school the headmaster announced the school would be participating in an exchange program with 20 students from Spain.  The Spanish kids would come to New York for a month,  and at a later date our students would go to Spain.  Families were asked to host and… Read More

Aunt Babs and Uncle Paul I’ve written about all my aunts and uncles before. (See Call Me by Their Names) Here’s more about my wonderful aunt Babs and uncle Paul,  high school sweethearts who met as kids in the Rockaways. Family legend has it that when he was in medical school at NYU,  and Babs was… Read More

Baby Shoes I’m not the sentimental type,  but when our son outgrew his first pair of baby shoes I decided to have them bronzed – separately. I gave one shoe to my mother-in-law who was then a widow,  and the other shoe to my parents. Years later when my mother-in-law died we took back her… Read More

Laundry Day in London Remembering gentler times when we weren’t so wary of others and had more trust in the kindness of strangers,   I think about laundry day in London. In the early 1970s my husband Danny had the chance to work in that wonderful city for a year and we grabbed it.  I… Read More

Comfort Food for Renee I met Renee about 25 years ago when we were both working as librarians in the Bronx – she at New York Public Library,  and I at Jane Addams High School. Renee had been trained as a book discussion leader,  and as part of NYPL’s outreach to schools program she came… Read More

Old Wives’ Tales I never put a hat on the bed. I hold my breathe when I pass a cemetery. When I see a nun in a habit,  I pull on my buttons. I never walk under open ladders. I bring the cup to the kettle,  never the kettle to the cup. I never open… Read More

Sheltering in Place Back in early February – which now seems a lifetime ago  – my husband Danny was told by his cardiologist that he would need surgery to correct a blocked carotid artery.  Of course I couldn’t resist chiding him that years of unhealthy snacking had finally caught up with him. Danny’s surgery was… Read More