Dick Cheney received a transplanted heart today.  Reportedly, he watched the television news from his hospital bed, saw that a puppy had been rescued from a burning house, and felt something odd flutter.  "I have this strange warm feeling," he reportedly told his nurse.  "I'm glad… Read full post »

A year ago I hit my personal bottom in this cataclysmic recession of too many familiar stories... I went for an interview for a holiday job at Toys 'R Us, nine months into my unemployment, and was summarily dismissed.  When I was asked what my salary needs were, I said "$10/hr," which… Read full post »

I am listening to This American Life's replay of an episode from several years ago about Penn State's number one reputation as a party school.  I remember hearing it the first time when I was still living in a Wisconsin college town whose economy was based on drinking and students.  Th… Read full post »

I am listening to This American Life's replay of an episode from several years ago about Penn State's number one reputation as a party school.  I remember hearing it the first time when I was still living in a Wisconsin college town whose economy was based on drinking and students.  Th… Read full post »

When I started my new job for a large public utility in 1980, my cubicle wasn't built yet and I was given a desk in a makeshift space shared by the agency's new Manager of Disaster Preparedness, who was also awaiting his new office.  For two weeks, I listened to his animated… Read full post »

Thirty years’ ago John Lennon died outside the Dakota co-op where he lived with Yoko Ono and his son, Sean.  They were my neighbors, almost, at that time; I lived on the Upper West Side within walking distance of the Dakota apartment building (named when it was built in the 19^th&… Read full post »

WASHINGTON – “A Minnesota campaign law requiring disclosure of corporate donations is fast becoming a national model in the wake of the U.S. Supreme Court ruling that allows corporations to spend unlimited amounts in elections.Finding their elections awash in secret donations, other state… Read full post »

Like many of you, I am unemployed.  I have assiduously applied for jobs, but I have never in my 30 years of work been treated so rudely, consistently.  I now understand that the new protocol for most employers, or job search agencies, is expediency; you are just an inconsequential cipher as… Read full post »

... but it was hot, the longest hot streak in this normally temperate land I remember, and we walked around with sweat beading and then just running, leaking from our pores, we who usually complain only in January, sought the shady side of the street,  walked our dogs early or late, sat… Read full post »

The headlines about the medical aid workers who were killed last week in Afghanistan, and protests about the building of mosques, both in New York and in other communities in this country, were juxtaposed in yesterday's New York Times. 

I raised the question among a few acquaintances, prog… Read full post »

Hot, hot and humid. All summer.

Reminds of that summer in New York, when hot and humid came first to your nostrils; the smell of garbage rotting on the curb before the trucks came, the whiff of urine from the subway stairwells, the brine of the East River, or the fishy smell from… Read full post »

In the dermatologist's office, I explained that I thought maybe the mole on my arm was bigger than it used to be, but it was probably nothing.  My primary physician said it was probably nothing, but I should have it checked out.

It was July.  The doctor held my arm a minute, … Read full post »

My father was a minister, and when I was a small child, all the talk of Our Father was very confusing to me.  My father was tall;  he had a deep voice and large hands.  I remember walking with my feet atop his shoes, my head about knee-height, arms around his calves.&n… Read full post »

Fresh spring peas out of the garden - mmm!  My response for a recipe is simple -- steam or cook the peas just enough, throw them into a good white sauce, and serve over toast.  Just peas, cream sauce, and toast.

However, my memory of peas is far darker and more traumatic.

When… Read full post »

The dog took me for our morning walk (when he drops a shoe in my lap it is a hint it's time to get up and go) and we passed the first crocuses of spring, royal purple nestled next to last fall's dead leaves. the purple of Lent, the purple of… Read full post »

Bald eagles gather in the bare branches of trees along the Missippissi River at this time in March, as the ice begins to soften and holes of open water appear.  I have counted two dozen birds in a single tree.

Other eagles sit right out on the ice next to an… Read full post »

I am moving.  I am packing, sorting, tossing.  I am downsizing.

I don't know where I will land, exactly; my sister's basement is the first stop.

I want to be 22 again, when I vowed a big army backpack was enough to hold all my possessions; I had a thumb to flag a ride… Read full post »

I have been the Other Woman, the much-maligned bimbo referenced in comments about Tiger or Sanford or Spitzer or any of our Famous Transgressing Men.   It has been  a very long time, but I can remember what the role was like.  Given the data on fidelity, there are many others of/… Read full post »

I have read some of the lengthy posts of terrible deceipt and the well-relished revenge of living well.

I am a simpler sort.

I forget the transgressions that led me to secret acts of vengeance.  He was my first real boyfriend.  It was really a sweet relationship.  But, eventually it en… Read full post »

According to a report out today from the Urban Land Institute, housing sales will not return to the “old normal.”  Aging baby boomers have different retirement needs, and the very large cohort in Generation Y will have different housing tastes:  walkable city centers, denser &ld/… Read full post »

Dross

January melts

Crud floats to top the snow banks,

Blackens the white crust.

Icicles along the highway cliffs turn blue

A chemical runs through;

The bills arrive, skim the surface of the table

Hope is settling to the bottom.

Despaired thoughts; I am able

To slip the sludge of these… Read full post »

The tragedy of Haiti’s earthquake was a palpable escape from the attention the publication of Game Change, the tell-all book that looked inside the presidential campaigns of 2008, was garnering for those principals who would rather just move on. The authors were booked on the round/… Read full post »

In response to Robin's Open Call  

Dear OS Love:

Your little fetishes, confessed on line, pique my prurient curiosities.  I would be willing to meet you anonymously, take the elevator up a high rise building, enter a great loft space with furs and hides strewn across the floor i… Read full post »

Anticipation

When I see you again we will exchange a quick kiss

A peck, really,

But I will feel the flush start in my cheeks

You will open the door

And we will talk about your trip or the weather

While the moisture seeps between my legs

You might pour a… Read full post »

The insipid Muzak Christmas carols are slow torture.  I hate shopping; I feel beset by the Season this year.  It is my thirtieth Christmas homily to prepare and thirty years since I was ordained.  God’s gift is an ironic story with a cruel plot twist.

A preacher is supposed… Read full post »