Tales of St. Nicholas have etched a love for these famous cold-weather deer, but do you know which is which when it comes to Caribou vs Elk? If someone says the word “deer,” I’ll bet I know what comes to your mind: Bambi. Certainly, that’s what goes through my mind. Many children grew up reading […]
What are the ties that bind together a country as far-reaching and diverse as ours? We are not a people made from a single stock. Rather, we are a medley of colors, races, religions, and ethnicities. You might think our language unites us, but in fact, we have no official language; we speak all the […]
I started this odyssey of finding music I liked on the internet with “Old Movie Stars Dance to Uptown Funk.” Stars from the 20s, 30s, 40s, and 50s dance to current music. No matter what your age, this is fun. It might even get you to dance yourself. You’ll see famous dancers: Gene Kelly, Fred […]
A million years ago when I was a freshman in college, I was eating lunch with a classmate in the student union. The union was busy at lunchtime. Two guys, who knew the other girl, asked if they could share our table. We said yes. It turned out that one of the guys, Jim, was […]
These days, with dozens of recipe blogs and websites, it is so easy to access recipes from the internet. But the best recipes still come from family and friends. Tried and true, they evoke memories. And if we want, we can always add pinch of this or a dash of that to make them our […]
Interviewers often ask people what their favorite books are and why. No one asked, but I’ll tell you anyway. Without a doubt, my favorite book is Never in Anger: A Portrait of an Eskimo Family by Jean L. Briggs. I bought my copy in 1972, shortly after it was first published. Forty-eight years later, it’s […]
It’s amazing how simple things can bring us joy. And it’s wonderful to realize that no matter our age, there are still new things to savor in life. Currently, I’m savoring fruits and vegetables. I recently told a friend that once a week I receive a box of organic fruit and vegetables from a (sort […]
New desk delivered Who knew the old one (gone) held So much useless stuff. I bought a new desk and filing cabinet. When I cleaned out file folders in the process of moving them to the new drawers, I found the receipt for the Dorsett Golden apple tree I bought in 2001 to be a […]
All the recent talk about immigrants makes me think about my mother. She married my father and emigrated from England in 1930. She lived in the US, mostly in California, until her death in 1988. She went home to England to visit family on only two occasions. She chose never to become a citizen. When […]
I write and I teach writing. If you think I’m going to tell you why I write—not this time. This is about why you should be writing. I don’t often tell others what I think they should do with their lives, but I do feel strongly that we all need to, at least, write memoirs. […]