Her name is Rockie, but don’t take her for granite. One of her jokes. Her given name is Rokama. According to several sources I consulted, in Hebrew the name means “comforted.” Or beloved. Or one who has received mercy. Or possibly: compassion. They all fit. If I had to name some of the influential women…
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Suprise Me
My Aunt Rocks!
Prompted By Aunts & Uncles
/ Stories
Her name is Rockie, but don’t take her for granite. One of her jokes. Her given name is Rokama. According to several sources I consulted, in Hebrew the name means “comforted.” Or beloved. Or one who has received mercy. Or possibly: compassion. They all fit. If I had to name some of the influential women…
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Aunt Suzie
Prompted By Aunts & Uncles
/ Stories
I decided this time to look at the flip side of the coin and write about my own experience as an aunt.
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Untitled
Prompted By Imitation
/ Stories
Here are some variations on that old canard ‘Imitation is the sincerest form of flattery’ – Imitation is the sincerest form of mockery – Imitation is the cheapest form of creativity – Imitation is the easiest form of learning – Imitation is the highest form of praise – Imitation is the lowest form…
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Being Ray
Prompted By Imitation
/ Stories
Then one day I read a story about a sea monster...
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Uncle Tom: Not Knowing How To Miss You
Prompted By Those We Miss
/ Stories
Today is Memorial Day, May 30, 2016. When I was growing up, my mother would take me to the cemetery in El Cerrito where her parents and brothers were buried and we would ohaka mairi, which in Japanese means to visit the graves of the ancestors. Usually one might go around the anniversary of their death, or maybe their birthday. But we would always go on Memorial Day to place flowers on my grandparents' graves and her brother Thomas Tamemasa Sagimori, who died in Italy during World War II.
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A Gap-and-a-Half
Prompted By Mind the Gap
/ Stories
My parents seemed stuck in attitudes about half a generation earlier than my friends' parents, hence in my household there was a gap-and-a-half.
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Love and Marriage – For our 50th Anniversary*
Prompted By Marriage
/ Stories
In 1967, I left my hometown in Michigan to move to Chicago with Fred, who would be starting medical school. Before I moved, I received several dire warnings from the women in my family. My great-aunt Sarah shared that she had read several cases in The Jewish Daily Forward’s “A Bintel Brief” about women who…
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Leap Day 2020
Prompted By Leap Day
/ Stories
Leap Day 2020 by Dorothy Rice Yesterday, February 28, was my anniversary. I suppose “our anniversary,” would be the better way to say it, but it’s kind of like when I’m asked how many children we have, and I respond, “I have three, and he has three,” even though together we have five kids, not…
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When prejudice is so ordinary, it is unexpected
Prompted By Prejudice
/ Stories


You know this quote.