What a Great Year It Has Been! Greetings, friends, family, colleagues, and buddies. Once again, I am celebrating my latest turn around the sun. After a quiet morning starting my next year of life, the sky has been mostly gray but the sun came out to party with me for a couple of hours midday. … Read more
In these new poems of both “mastery” and “mystery,” Georgia A. Popoff, “witness to the natural order,” speaks of longing and regret with honesty and precision: “the ways a bed is carefully made / each morning to ward off any trace of intimacy.” Or, at times, doesn’t speak of such things: “what we don’t say … Read more
We were both in Mr. Cohen’s 5th grade class, and had been best friends since third grade. I loved sleeping over at her house. Mrs. Johnson was the only single mother in our neighborhood, and though she worked all week, on the weekends she made us feel like the most important people she knew. She left … Read more
I’m sitting in the No Name Bar, heels clipped to the bar stool rung. Watching the Detectives fills the high corners of the room; there’s such pleasing reverb in these old buildings. No Name is the only campus bar that has Tempest, and the drinks are cheap. Best part, it is summer 1980 and the … Read more
Cooking is second nature to me, after nearly 60 years. I am a practical cook with a taste for heat, eclectic palette, and a bit of flair. I mostly love to cook to feed people, to honor guests. In COVID time, I have been cooking mostly for myself, and finding that I am just as … Read more
[Pumpkin Applesauce] I love to invent new dishes, especially when I am finding food that is slightly past prime but redeemable. This is the case with apples often. They get a little soft, perhaps a bit withered, but not rotted. Perfect time to make applesauce. Last night I was finally digging out the pulp from … Read more
My mother would fry bacon patiently, rendering as much of the fat as possible. After she removed the slices to drain on paper towel, she would crack eggs into the hot pan, and carefully baste them with the bacon fat until cooked through to a perfect sunny-side up, dotted with little brown orts left behind. … Read more
I have been cooking since I was nine years old, first by my mother’s side. I received my first cookbook for Christmas and promptly started earning Girl Scout badges in hospitality, baking, and cooking with its recipes. By the time I was 11, I could prepare a full meal for a family. This came in … Read more
[with Corn Chowder Recipe] Awhile back, I think last fall, when the world was more routine and safe from disease, I visited a friend in her stately 19th century house in the country on a hill overlooking a local reservoir. Deb was preparing a corn chowder in her newly remodeled kitchen. The door was left … Read more
I’m sitting in the No Name Bar, heels clipped to the bar stool rung. Watching the Detectives fills the high corners of the room; there’s such great reverb in these old buildings. This is the only campus bar that has Tempest, and the drinks are cheap. Best part, it is summer 1980 and the students … Read more