Every day when my husband was in the hospital, a loaf of homemade bread was delivered to me at the surgical ICU of St. Mary's Hospital in Rochester, Minnesota, along with a note, handwritten.

The note was from a little nun.

Sister Catherine Cecile had then well passed her hundredth birthday.… Read full post »

My mother says this is the underside of spring.  Eliot would say midwinter spring is its own season.

A time of change.  A time of healing.

Seven weeks after collapsing at home and being taken to the hospital, five weeks after leaving the hospital and going… Read full post »

Toni Murdock

Tulisse Antoinette "Toni" Onstott was my high school history teacher. When she married a local boy, the cowboy son of a famous ranching family who was at the time working as the school custodian, Mike Murdock, she went from being "Miss Onstott" to "Mrs. Murdock."

Toni Murdock.

I lo/… Read full post »

White House Press Secretary Robert Gibbs made good on an Olympic bet today and wore a Team Canada ice hockey jersey to the official briefing.   Gibbs promised he'd wear a Canadian jersey if the US team lost to Canada in the gold medal match-up at the 2010 Winter Olympic games… Read full post »

A recent study conducted at the University of Aberdeen in Scotland has concluded that women using oral contraceptives might have health and longevity advantages over those who don't.

'The Pill,' long associated with health risks including increased risk of blood clots in younger women,… Read full post »

After getting the proverbial boot from NBC, former Tonight Show host Conan O'Brien is getting the last laugh.

Team Coco announced today the late night comedian will be embarking on a 30-city tour, opening April 12th in Eugene, Oregon.

The "Legally Prohibited from Being Funny on Television Tour" (bill… Read full post »

I wish I could remember her name.  It was one of those distinctively English names, like Chloe or Paige or somesuch, the summer of 1972, the summer I was working as a teenage cook on a hay crew at a prominent cattle ranch in western Wyoming.  She was visiting from… Read full post »

Photo of trainer Dawn Brancheau with one of the killer whales at SeaWorld.  Brancheau lost her life in an accident with the largest of the orcas, Tillikum, at the Orlando park on February 24.  Her family is seeking an injunction to prevent release of video of her death.  … Read full post »

Triage is one of my favorite words, because it describes so well what no other word can--the assessing of a situation, and prioritizing a response to it.

In medical terms, it's generally the first, or possibly the second, thing that happens to a patient when they present in an… Read full post »

Virl and Tom Osmond, the oldest of the Osmond siblings.  Although significant hearing impairment kept them from being part of the performing family, their disability was the inspiration for the creation of the Children's Miracle Network. 

As the Osmond family is laying to rest… Read full post »

That I grew up near one of the deepest glacier lakes in North America might have had something to do with it.

Fremont Lake is eleven miles long, a half mile wide, around 600 feet deep at its deepest point with a stretch of sandy beach at one end… Read full post »

 Everyone has those moments most seared in memory from Academy Award shows past, whether it's Barbra Streisand tripping on her way up to collect a Best Actress for Funny Girl, Louise Fletcher thanking her parents in sign language, or the unforgettable streaker behind David Niven in… Read full post »

I'm not sure how it happened, but in a flash while my husband and I were debating who would get up to go out to get hot dogs, a ball cracked off a bat and came back of third base and into the stands, where it missed my head by inches… Read full post »

I first heard the name Pippi Longstocking as a young girl, waist high to my grandfather walking along the Union Pacific tracks in a Wyoming railroad town.

A block past the depot was the county library, an old historic building all white, filled with books and linoleum and dusty… Read full post »

Note to Apple:  It's March.

Where's my iPad?

Sources are reporting they're sneaking into the Apple stores next week so employees can get their hands on them first, but not available to the rest of us until March 26th.  And that's just for the regular WiFi ones.

I… Read full post »

Legendary film critic Roger Ebert of the Chicago Sun-Times made headlines Tuesday when he debuted a new computer voice on Oprah.

Ebert, who lost the ability to speak in 2006 due to cancer surgery, has used computer-generated voices in the meantime, but the new voice is special b… Read full post »

at the public house

Spittle kisses, kisses far

Barred and cloaked,

The oak and tar.

Tarnished lyre 

The fire stoked

Upon the spit,

Death ajar. 

  Read full post »

Not everyone huddled around the water cooler this morning is scratching their head over Jake picking Vienna on The Bachelor.  Some are officially on Paterson resign watch, as the embattled New York governor soldiers on in the face of a gathering storm.

Calls for the governor's resi… Read full post »

NASA recently uploaded to their Flickr account the best photographs taken of planet Earth yet.

The Blue Marble: The Next Generation are a series of photographs taken aboard NASA's Terra satellite in 2001 using special imaging data and stitched together to render the most… Read full post »

Dawn Brancheau, the SeaWorld trainer who lost her life last week, is being buried today in Chicago, following a wake last night and funeral services this morning.  Below is her obituary, along with the video tribute that was shown as the 'Believe' show resumed at SeaWorld in her memory on Saturd… Read full post »

One of the most delicious meals I ever enjoyed was divine in its simplicity, a glorious Tuscan bean chili at its heart.

The creator was an angel, who shared with me as a special gift her recipe.

TUSCAN BEAN CHILI 

Brown and drain:

1 large onion,… Read full post »

look up

lighten up

laugh

it's not so bad

it'll be fine

incline

recline

find the time

bind the ties

the ties that bind

fine

it will be

you've got time

time enough

it'll be rough

buck up

up and up

look up

take the buck

find your luck… Read full post »

Tillikum, or 'Tilly,' the orca involved in this week's tragic death of a trainer at SeaWorld Orlando.  SeaWorld President and CEO Jim Atchison confirmed Friday that Tilly will remain at SeaWorld and that killer whale shows will resume. 

In the wake of the tragic death of kill… Read full post »