I began learning to cook when I was nine; simple tasks: frying an egg, dicing onions, peeling potatoes, sloppy joes. Once I grew confident in the kitchen, I was eager to try anything. In the early 60s, Golden Press released Betty Crocker’s New Boys and Girls Cookbook, with its bright yellow cover depicting happy children, … Read more
Remember that chocolate brown hard shell transistor radio, the one under your pillow? The transistor radio that filled your ear with WNDR and WOLF; Jim O’Brien or Bud Ballou spinning the hits. Dale Dorman. Dandy Dan Leonard. Brought to you by Byrne Dairy, whose milk was declared mighty fine. 8 o’clock, after the news, This … Read more
This morning, after the last of the rain, across the street on the new, brave grass, several pairs of cardinals grazed the space between the curb and the sidewalk. The soft earth of late March must offer so much to the beak. This scene is most unusual, the plump males strutting and pecking, strutting some … Read more
Aesop’s grasshopper was a dancer, a prancer, a bit of a party boy. The ant was serious, determined, a bit of a worrier. The ant toed the line, worked hard, would never go hungry. The grasshopper trilled through summer, hopping through tall grass over the rivers of ants going about their gathering business. It was … Read more
COVID-19 Day 8 of Retreat Throughout my teens and 20s, I had recurring dreams, nightmares actually, but the kind just shy of waking you in terror, a scream lodged in your throat. I had those too. But the dreams I had most often were of being forced to witness genocidal acts or their aftermath, forced … Read more