In the last gallery of The Steins Collect, which recently ended its run at the Metropolitan Museum, is a glass case with books, their own form of art by virtue of both writer and illustrator. What captures my attention is not the fact that Gertrude Stein employed her inimitable prose style to write … [Read more...] about Rose is a rose
Lipstick
There’s a woman who lives down the road from me, a hearty soul who ran the family business, a septic-tank service, until Alzheimer’s put the brakes on some of her organizational skills. I’d see her on the road walking one dog or another (she has two), a stick in hand to keep at bay any … [Read more...] about Lipstick
‘Close your windows, there’s something coming from Jersey’
Years ago, as a single woman living in New York, I came home one night to a message on my answering machine, no mistaking my mother's voice: “Close your windows, there's something coming from Jersey.” Apparently some sulfurous vapor had been released into the atmosphere from, yes, New Jersey, and … [Read more...] about ‘Close your windows, there’s something coming from Jersey’
Password(s)
I get a call the other day, automated, VISA randomly checking up on possibly suspicious credit card activity. I call back, a little leery, phishing expeditions rampant these days. After pressing one touchtone key after another, I finally get a live voice, a sweet woman who tells me she can’t get … [Read more...] about Password(s)
The Passover Games
It was in reading chapter 23 of 'Catching Fire' (otherwise known as Book Two of The Hunger Games trilogy) when it hit me with the full force of a plague of locusts: Lightning. Blood rain. Fog. Monkeys. This modern, dystopian tale has the markings of a recast Passover story. Think about it: … [Read more...] about The Passover Games
Modern Love
My husband does not own a cell phone. This is no Luddite, holier-than-thou holdout. He doesn’t need one, he insists, case closed. He has a two-line phone for his business and only recently made a big technological leap, from an old-fashioned answering machine (the tape was beginning to crackle) to … [Read more...] about Modern Love
