Suprise Me

Mr. Gauntt had a way of making the drama department inclusive, even though the word wouldn't have been used at that time. Read More

You Better Shop Around and Ten Other Useful Bits of Advice Read More

Sorry, I can’t think of a song for this story, it’s too solemn a subject. On the morning of September 11, 2001, I was in Birmingham, AL, for the quarterly meeting of the Environment Sector of the Electric Power Research Institute.  After breakfast at the hotel, a group of us piled into a van to… Read More

My birthday falls at the end of August, which is a lovely time of year, but a terrible time to have a birthday when you are young. Read More

Remember “Eileen” from “You Made Me Love You” ( the Crush prompt)?  Read More

It was clear I needed a job.  Turning twenty, literate (two years of college behind me), energetic, and flexible—surely this would not be too hard.  But it turned out I knew nothing about finding work. Read More

(T)he point of these reminiscences isn’t a specific memory, it’s about the conversations that ensue about those memories. Read More

Retrospect Caption Contest (just like the New Yorker): Please write a caption for this picture of Donald Fagen, age 71, who is the co-founder and lead singer of the band Steely Dan. You may recall one of their biggest songs, Hey Nineteen. Here is an excerpt from the lyrics: Hey, nineteen That’s ‘Retha Franklin She… Read More

I am not organized, and I have no particular desire to be. You can figure this out as soon as you walk into my house. Well, sometimes the downstairs looks organized, because we scoop everything up and take it upstairs if we know we are having company. This leads to some chaos in the upstairs… Read More

...And there she was, encamped in the front reading room, chatting and smoking.  My heart did a little dance. My eyes blinked from surprise and relief, to see her again. She seemed spot-lit and radiant as I slow-walked past her, urging myself to stop, but not stopping.  Read More