Because Everyone Should Write A Memoir, Dahlinks*
Quilters and Quilting
I aspire to be crafty, able to make beauty with my hands out of thread, yarn, cotton, wool, silk and more, but the truth is I am not crafty, not at all. Once, ironically during one of the hottest NYC summers on record, I started a crazy quilt. I did this because it...
The King!
Kathy, an accounting major from Buffalo, lived down the hall from me freshman year at Syracuse. She worshipped Elvis. As a high school graduation present, she had travelled from her home in the Bills' city to Rochester, N.Y. in May of 1977 to see Elvis in person, in...
Country Living: Critters!!
In NYC, there were and are, of course, mice and cockroaches and - in the subway - rats, as well as raccoons in Central Park (so chubby, the happy little garbage diggers) - but in rural life, real rural living, the critterage is at a whole new level. My present house...
RIP Steven J.T.?
Oh dear, another one bites the dust and I am left wondering how to react, respond, should anyone bring up SJ's recent demise, which - small town - it is inevitable that they will do. And, they did. Did you hear, did you see? Such a youngish man, relatively speaking....
Compliance
“Compliance causes a shocking realisation that must be registered by all women. That is, to be ourselves causes us to be exiled by many others, and yet to comply with what others want causes us to be exiled from ourselves. It is a tormenting tension and it must be...
Letting Go, Letting Grow
Or do I mean glow? Both. Anne Lamott is one of my favorite writers; her book, Bird By Bird, is one of the best ever about the art and science of writing; I have given it as a gift to aspiring young writers for years. Recently I came across this quote from Lamott: “You...
One in Five: Women’s History, Personal History
*My progressive opinion column for the month of March, published in the regional newspaper for which I write March 14th, and posted here on a bit of a lag because - oh, just because. Thanks for being here, and for following along. It should surprise no one that from...
The Burned Girl
*My January submission for a quarterly arts 'zine published regionally. Will they use it? Only time will tell. It will come out in April, or May? Fingers x'ed. As a kid, I spent five consecutive summer fortnights at a sleepover camp called Skanatati outside Sherburne,...
RIP, Tommy
He was my 6th grade boyfriend, which basically means very little other than for a time we were 'going' together. He was in my brother's class, one up from mine, and - crucially, he had the same last name as me, which, I'll admit, is the primary reason I was interested...