Maybe my mother did not have the shopping gene or never shook off the Depression and Protestant ethos, but she seems to have passed that shopping ambivalence on to me. Read More

You know this quote. Read More

How did I happen to read that book?  I don’t remember anyone giving it to me or seeing it in the house, so most likely it was in a school library, maybe thoughtfully displayed by a librarian, or maybe just calling to me from a shelf. In any case it was not like anything I had read and it spoke powerfully to my own adolescent yearning to make sense of existence. Read More

I still have a pang in my gut crossing any border, even when it should be benign.  Anything could happen in that liminal area. Read More

Instead of the usual “my name is” and “how are you” basics, I learned how to explain how many pills to take how often, with or without food, with cautions about dizziness, upset stomach or other side effects. Read More

We managed to see our share of the Saturday kids’ programs, endless varieties of Westerns, the stereotypical Ozzie and Harriet sitcoms, variety shows and increasingly, the news. Read More

My father was always a bit of a food adventurist.  He liked vinegar on broccoli, Brussels sprouts and spinach, and potato salad with vinegar and onions instead of mayonnaise. Read More

Family and friends, returning to the center. Read More

Could it really be that simple? Read More

At last I was successfully disentangling from a bad relationship with an incipiently psychotic partner and needed to move out, now.  A colleague at work turned out to be the landlady of an available place, not far from our community health clinic, and I grabbed it. Read More