If you'd come to our place years ago, you'd have known.

As a guest, you'd have gotten a basket of fresh fruit in your room.  A bottle or two of water.  Some reading material, maybe, things tailored to your journey and interests.

I'd have shopped for just the right… Read full post »

Just toward the end of County Road, toward the Jolly Roger that was built to look like a pirate ship and not far from the Union Pacific underpass, was the penny candy store Grandpa would take us as children, standing tiptoe on the wooden floor to look into the containers… Read full post »

crackers

munchy, crunchy

dissolving, solving, evolving

not what we thought

poison 

  Read full post »

This baby bird looks far too innocent to be channeling Mary Matalin.  Don't be fooled. 

When we acquired a baby sun conure Christmas before last, we felt fairly certain of his potential speaking abilities.

We thought he might imitate a few of our regular phrases if we s… Read full post »

Whenever I really want to laugh, I put in a Christopher Guest movie.  

Corky St. Clair pinch hits in one of my favorite scenes in Waiting for Guffman, "A Penny for Your Thoughts" with Parker Posey, actually quite a charming song written by fellow band… Read full post »

In January 2010, the poster known as Will Someone Feed the Cat issued a metals open call, all posts, whether poetry, fiction or personal narrative, to be on metals or a metal of the poster's choice.  Many great posts resulted from that call which were read and acknowledged by an author… Read full post »

Back in what is affectionately referred to the 'old days' of Open Salon (as if there really could be such a thing for a website so young), there used to be cute pet photos that went up on Fridays, tagged "aw."

That hasn't been a regular feature for a while now,… Read full post »

By now, those who've seen Christopher Nolan's latest film, "Inception" in the theater and enjoyed it are returning for second, third and more viewings.  If you're one of those people, this guide is for you, but warning, it does contain SPOILERS.

For those of you who haven't yet seen the film,… Read full post »

When he awoke, he said he'd been up the river a distance, in the arms of a beautiful woman, a mother, a Madonna, in trees overlooking the peaceful water.

He said he'd been on a train, a train that took him from one place to another, miles apart, that people… Read full post »

  A few years before that mighty Walton patriarch died in the 1970's,  I sat on a hillside of aspens in the shade of Timpanogos and listened to Will Geer being introduced by a very ruddy Robert Redford in the late summer chill at Sundance. 

One of my favorite vignett… Read full post »

The summer of 1969 was the summer of my swimdresses.  

That I can even find an online photo of them now is amazing.  In our remote corner of the planet in southwest Wyoming where I spent my youth we had only mail order catalogs--Sears, Penneys, Aldens, and what was… Read full post »

You know I hate meta, but every once in a while, it helps to lighten the mood.

Your friends on Open Salon are Canadian.  Sure, I know you thought they were all from Indiana or Missouri.  They're not.  They know the prairies and the provinces like the… Read full post »

During an evening of guilty pleasure watching of ABC's The Bachelor  earlier this year, I gave myself a hearty pat on the back with the assurance that I would never participate in a reality dating show like The Bachelor or The Bachelorette.

But you did, my husband reminded me… Read full post »

Leonardo DiCaprio explains the architecture of dreams to Ellen Page on the streets of Paris. 

It's nearly impossible to review Leonardo DiCaprio's latest film, 'Inception,' without spoiling it, and once spoiled, it will be nearly impossible to watch it, so I won't do that her… Read full post »

I come from a long line of women.  Strong women.  

The settling of the American west required a special breed, for the landscape took no prisoners, and the journey, now days by sagebrush-lined Interstate highway or hours at thirty-thousand feet, required months in harsh… Read full post »

"Everyone who enters a room takes something and leaves something behind."

I still have that piece of you somewhere.

A scribble in a book from a reseller's table, a cryptic note, a thin volume of Keats, a well worn quilt, memories of cold and dark.

I still have… Read full post »

The dress:

The color scheme: 

The invitation:

The bridesmaid's dresses:

(except bodices in violet or soft green)

The bridal bouquet:

or

The ph… Read full post »

While burrowing through old photographs yesterday, I stumbled onto something I thought was lost forever--the clippings, cartoons and notes from my 1980's refrigerator, a wealth of wisdom and wonder.

I had recently moved to Wisconsin and loved reading small town blurbs in the local newspaper, especial… Read full post »

A call when out in recent days to write about sanctuary.  For me, sanctuary has always been as much about state of mind as place, but in this case, it's assuredly a place:

There's a light rain now where wise ones stood, generations before, centuries before, on… Read full post »

There are too many Marys in this family.

I try not to tease my husband about names in his big Chicago Irish Catholic family, since my western Mormon family has naming idiosyncracies of its own, but it can be both amusing and complicated to call for someone in the… Read full post »

We are never fully ready when it comes.  Not really.

It can come suddenly, smack us mightily, steal those we love without warning, and leave us in our own dust, brushing off, never the same.

It can give warning, some time, a luxury with a downside.  We know they're going, and… Read full post »

SHOOT ME NOW, TAKE TWO 

Author's note: Scout's honor, these are (mostly) snippets of conversation I overheard in a Northwoods tavern at the ragged end of the Fourth of July weekend, late into happy hour when a rainstorm cancelled the fireworks not once but twice pushing people indoors for… Read full post »

Kimberly Evans, 26, a preschool teacher at J E Cosgriff Memorial School in Salt Lake City, Utah.  Kimberly's body was located below a waterfall in Bells Canyon, Utah, this morning east of Salt Lake City following a tragic accident June 26th when she and a companion slipped trying t… Read full post »

There's something special about the Wisconsin northwoods.  No matter when we arrive, we always plan to be around for the Fourth of July for authentic small town America celebrations with parades, pancake breakfasts, antiques shows and fireworks, lots of flag waving and local color.  This ye… Read full post »