Less than thirty-six hours after hijacked aircraft hit the World Trade Center and the Pentagon, I was standing on the banks of the Bosphorus at the crossroads of east and west watching day fade into night, overcome with the most powerful of emotions--longing for home.

When I think… Read full post »

American hiker Sarah Shourd, above, receiving a humanitarian visit from her mother in Iranian prison earlier this year.  Iranian authorities have announced they will release Shourd, one of three captive American hikers,  Saturday after being detained in Iranian prison for over… Read full post »

"The moon lays a hand on my forehead,

Blank-faced and mum as a nurse."

- Sylvia Plath 

My mother reminds me there are many ways to mother, that biology doesn't have everything to do with it.  

I know this.  

I've known it for decades,… Read full post »

Really, it's a pain.  

People think it must be wonderful, knowing what will happen ahead of time, intuiting the future.  But it has its drawbacks.

Take, for example, the day I decided I was going to write an especially brilliant post on hairstyles from my past.  And then… Read full post »

Florida senate candidates Kendrick Meek (Democrat), Charlie Crist (Independent) and Marco Rubio (Republican), in a three-way contest for the vacant seat.  While Rubio is mourning the death of his father this weekend, the other released new television spots designed to take voters f… Read full post »

If Snoopy wrote erotica.

It was a dark and stormy night.  Dark.  Stormy.  Dark and stormy.

Everything was moist in anticipation.  Anticipation of what was to come.  What was.  To come.  

Everything.

It was.

The curtains par… Read full post »

One of the things that's been occupying a lot of my time this summer has been going through old photographs and scanning them into the computer.

I came across these the other day and thought they were remarkably similar, if thirty years apart.

The top picture of… Read full post »

I love Genius playlists, but I don't take advantage of them all that often.  This morning, looking over my responses to Mark Trost's open call for Fifteen in Fifteen, I decided to go into my iPad and pull up some of those songs on iTunes, starting with Don Quixote.

On a… Read full post »

Sunsets and sunrises have always held special fascination, whether in Vancouver's English Bay, the west side of Maui overlooking Lanai, or the nightly ritual at Key West.

These shots were taken in the Wisconsin northwoods as summer draws to its inevitable please-don't-hurry close, first spotted from… Read full post »

Mark Trost issued an open call earlier today asking us each to list fifteen memorable albums without putting too much thought into the process, just fifteen off the tops of our heads.

Here are mine.  I'll come back and add comments periodically in the body of the post, so check… Read full post »

Those who were eagerly awaiting the announcement from San Francisco yesterday morning weren't disappointed.  Apple CEO Steve Jobs unveiled several new products, featuring a retooled iPod lineup (iPod announcements are historically made in September), social media for iTunes and a n… Read full post »

I've never wanted to be a man.  But I finally figured out exactly who I'd be if I was one.

*I'd be rough around the edges, but able to be refined when required.

*I'd look interesting enough that I could travel from one country to another and people might think… Read full post »

  Knees and I go way back.  I used to joke about my joints.  I said, my father had high arches and weak ankles.  My mother had strong ankles but flat feet.  Did I get the high arches and strong ankles?

No.  Got the weak ankles and flat feet.

I was always… Read full post »

 There are some people we just assume will die young.  We've become accustomed to it.  We imagine somewhere in the sky is a great banquet table filled with JFK, his brother and his son, Buddy Holly, Elvis, Princess Grace, Marilyn Monroe, and of course, Princess Diana.

Of all the… Read full post »

Somewhere in my old cedar chest among the tea towels my mother embroidered when she was pregnant with me, my father's old books and an assortment of crocheted baby dresses is a suede hat, the kind worn by wannabe hippies in the late '60s and early '70s.  With it is… Read full post »

If you missed any of the 62nd Emmy Awards last night and weren't among the 13.5 million people watching, all you need is right here, the opening sequence with Jimmy Fallon and a few Gleeful sidekicks:

62nd Primetime Emmy Awards host Jimmy Fallon gets his Glee on.

 … Read full post »

To RJM, rodeo rider.  And gambler. 

A year ago today, a favorite uncle of mine died.  I know exactly where I was when I got that news, on a bend in the highway in Evanston, Wyoming, in the shade of the old Wyoming State Hospital building that immediately came… Read full post »

Workers setting up for the Glenn Beck "Restoring Honor" rally taking place at the Lincoln Memorial in Washington, D.C. Saturday, August 28th, on the 47th anniversary of Martin Luther King's "I Have a Dream" speech.  Beck says the timing was coincidental, but "divine providence." (AP phot… Read full post »

The last lazy days of summer are upon us in the Wisconsin northwoods. We decided to take advantage today by going out on the chain of twenty-two lakes that sits outside our door--the largest chain of inland lakes in North America.

First mate, reporting for duty. 

&nbs… Read full post »

A week ago, on August 18th, I posted about how my husband and I go out every year and celebrate the anniversary of our first date eighteen years ago, with silly rituals like returning to my old apartment so he can pick me up ("Hi, doll!  Are you nervous?") and wearing… Read full post »

A Facebook friend mentioned earlier today she'd worn a necklace to a recent job interview, a not completely comfortable concession to an unspoken dress code she perceives in the professional world.

"I draw the line at pantihose," she said.

Pantihose.  I thought about it.  I h… Read full post »

Elin Nordegren, recently divorced from golfer Tiger Woods, with the couple's two children, Sam and Charlie.  (INF Photo) 

Of all the stories to come out of the Tiger Woods affair(s), this is perhaps the most revealing, that Elin Nordegren, the now ex-wife, hadn't a clue… Read full post »

Florida Representative Kendrick Meek, seeking a win in today's Democratic primary in Florida for the Senate seat vacated by Mel Martinez.  If successful against billionaire Jeff Greene, he will face Charlie Crist and Marco Rubio in a three-way race in November.  (AP photo/Bren… Read full post »