Most people associate the word “tutor” with someone hired to give individual remedial instruction in a course that one is having trouble with. However at Harvard, following the model of Oxford and Cambridge, students have tutorials in their field of concentration in their second, third, and fourth years. Sophomore tutorial is in a small group,… Read More

I already knew how to read when I got to kindergarten. I could write my first name in capital letters. I also knew colors and numbers and days of the week. This was partly because my sisters thought it was fun to teach me, and partly because, as the third child in the family, I… Read More

When I was little, Susan and the Rain was one of my favorite books. Of course it was partly because my name is Susan, but also because I hated the rain. Here’s how it starts: Susan Amantha Cottonwood   was a little girl      who was always good –         when the sun… Read More

It is the fiftieth anniversary of Woodstock, and for the past week there have been Woodstock stories everywhere I look. Every newspaper and magazine, print or online, seems to have a story written by someone who was there. PBS aired a new documentary last week subtitled Three Days That Defined a Generation. (Does that title… Read More

So far, I haven’t had any desire to have my DNA tested, even though so many other people I know are doing it. I don’t really want that information falling into the wrong hands, and more importantly, I don’t think I would find out anything about my ancestry that I don’t already know. However, there’s… Read More

I always wanted a neighbor that I could talk to over the back fence. You see it in comic strips, TV shows and movies. BFFs who live next door to each other. But I wonder if it ever happens in real life. In my childhood, we knew our neighbors but were not friends with them.… Read More

“Shlog dein kup en vant!” This is as close as I can get to what my parents said to me in Yiddish when I was a child, if I ever said “I’m bored, what should I do?” It means “go bang your head against the wall.” It was said lovingly, and of course I knew… Read More

Sunday, July 20, 1969. “The Eagle has landed.” Hard to believe that it has been fifty years since we heard those words! Yes, I remember watching the moon landing, but my story about it has more questions than answers. Principally, what was I doing in Cambridge that weekend? It was the summer between my freshman… Read More

I rarely go to the beach, and when I do, I am generally either working on my suntan (I know, very dangerous, but I still do it) or cooling off in the water. I can’t remember ever bringing a book to the beach either as a child or as an adult. But I do like… Read More

Watching all those colorful explosions shooting through the sky just makes me happy. Read More