Suprise Me

One of my all-time favorite movies, Amelie, has a lot going for it…the enchanting Audrey Tatou, dozens of evocative Paris locations—particularly Montmartre—and the iconic Photomaton…a photo booth, the photo booth I borrowed and tweaked for our featured image. As part of the plot line, Amelie (Tatou) pursues an eccentric and mysterious man who collects discarded… Read More

The Spanish proverb that is the title of my story is a painful lesson I learned as a young adult. Growing up in a traditional Jewish household, I was taught two Jewish proverbs as a child: “What you don’t see with your eyes, don’t witness with your mouth.” “Loose tongues are worse than wicked hands.”… Read More

After Mother’s sister Ann died in Detroit, it became clear she needed to live close to one of her children. Rick and I each showed her a few continuing care communities close to us (my brother lives in Cincinnati) and she chose to come to the Boston area in 1995 at the age of 82.… Read More

I realized there is nothing very hard about cooking as long as you follow the recipe (and don't pick a recipe with too many steps). Read More

I walked around the house looking for antiques. We have a few, but I don't own any of them. However the house is older than I am. Read More

Retreat  A dozen or so years ago my cousin Kathy called me in New York from DC and asked me to join her the following month for a Jewish women’s retreat. Because geography had always kept us apart,  spending a weekend with my cousin was appealing and a women’s retreat would be a new experience… Read More

In the early 70’s when I first came to Palo Alto California to attend school my parents offered to help with my living expenses. I thought I had a handle on getting off to a great start when I convinced my parents that rent was considerably higher in Palo Alto than it was in the… Read More

It was quite a job putting the bed frame together, although I don't remember whether it required any trips to the hardware store. Read More

The library was on the basement floor of that old 1934 two-story dark brick building in a small windowless room, maybe 12 by 15 feet.  Its walls were lined with bookshelves, neatly organized into the Dewey decimal system Read More

He loved to say "You can trust me, I'm a doctor!" And people did. Read More