I confess to being conservative about drugs.

Not just street drugs.  Generally, the most you'll see me take is aspirin, acetaminophen or ibuprofen, because I'm not big on prescription or over-the-counter medicine either, too often overused and abused.

Perhaps growing up with… Read full post »

If I could just have one more day with you.  Just one day.

I'd hop in the pickup truck and sit on the seat next to you, reach up to that radio dial and turn it to KMER, even though I hated KMER growing up and all that country… Read full post »

A year ago this week, June 12, 2009, Iran's tenth presidential election erupted in controversy and led to a firestorm of protest.  Accusations of voting irregularities surfaced immediately against the re-elected incumbent, and a Sea of Green began flowing in opposition to what many thought wa… Read full post »

Multiple sources confirm that reporter Helen Thomas has submitted her resignation, effective immediately, in the wake of controversial comments the legendary White House… Read full post »

Kathryn Rogers, 33, and Rush Limbaugh, 59, who were married Saturday at The Breakers in Palm Beach, Florida.  It was the fourth marriage for Limbaugh, the conservative radio host and commentator, whose illness at a Hawaiian hotel led to an unlikely pairing with his million dollar w… Read full post »

Catherine Forsythe has a great post this morning on Anamika Veeramani, the newest champion of the Scripps National Spelling Bee, which inspired this post.  Please read about Anamika on Catherine's blog.

Inside the Brown Palace Hotel in Denver, where I had my first $6 hamburger and… Read full post »

I always thought the humpback whales had it right--summers in Sitka, winters in Maui.  Theirs was a picture perfect seasonal residence, a writer's refuge in the shadow of Mount Edgecumbe up north, a winter playground with beaches and turquoise waters down south.

I underestimated t… Read full post »

Child actor Gary Coleman, then 4, with his parents on the cover of the book co-written by them in 1981.  Coleman's parents, who have been estranged from their now deceased son for 23 years, are seeking legal custody of his body following disclosure Coleman was secretly divorced from his… Read full post »

Thirty-odd years ago, give or take a week or two, I stood at a podium overlooking a class in purple gowns and mortar boards, fresh faced, their parents, family from near and far, friends, the entire town really, and gave possibly the shortest valedictory address in that high school's… Read full post »

Marche aux Fleurs, by Edouard Leon Cortes (1882-1969) 

In the lobby of the Drake Hotel in Chicago, a few blocks from Lake Michigan, is a little corner art gallery with some of the most amazing pieces of Salon and French post-impressionist art I've seen publicly displayed.… Read full post »

U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder announced Tuesday afternoon that federal agencies will be participating in a criminal investigation of the Deepwater Horizon oil spill.  

The following are Attorney General Holder's remarks as given earlier today in New Orleans:

This… Read full post »

In happier times:  Tipper and Al Gore on their wedding day, May 19, 1970, National Cathedral, Washington, D.C.  (photo: Wikipedia)

One might well inquire, "Where have all the good men gone?"  Another political marriage that appeared to be admirable is calling it quits.

F… Read full post »

Val Holley is the author of James Dean:  The Biography and Mike Connolly and the Manly Art of Hollywood Gossip.  He is currently working on a  history of his hometown of Ogden, Utah,  25th Street Confidential: Drama, Decadence, and Dissipation Along Ogden's Rowdiest Ro… Read full post »

I originally posted this tribute to three soldiers in my life on Veterans Day last year.  I'm reposting it in tribute to those who've served this Memorial Day.

My favorite veteran, my husband, US Army Air Corps, World War II. 

 ROUGE BOUQUET&n… Read full post »

I had an interesting tweet from my buddy @Shoq on Twitter this afternoon bringing the following YouTube video to my attention:

These gentlemen seem to think that hay found commonly in the southeastern United States could be part of the cleanup solution for the oil spill currently in… Read full post »

Original post can be found here:  Such a Death  (June 27, 2009)

This is one of the first things I posted when I came to Open Salon in late June 2009 and one of my first Editors Picks.  Despite that, it didn't get widespread viewing and only a handful of people… Read full post »

4-year-old Ethan Stacy, whose body was found May 11th in Utah.  Ethan's biological mother and her new husband have been charged with aggravated murder and abuse in Ethan's death and could face the death penalty.  (family photo from  In Remembrance of Ethan Stacy | Facebook has… Read full post »

I confess.  I heart bowling.  I returned to it well in mid-life after dabbling with it some as a child.  My parents were both on bowling leagues, and well, in our town, there wasn't much else to do at night.  Plus, they were both good bowlers, no, really… Read full post »

Gary Coleman and his wife, Shannon, at their 2007 wedding.  Coleman was taken off life support Friday after sustaining a head injury.  (family photo)

Child actor Gary Coleman, 42, was taken off life support in a Provo, Utah, hospital late Friday morning by his wife, after sus… Read full post »

In my family, Memorial Day traditionally meant two things--decorating graves and attending family reunions.

 My Havanese, Sweetie, at the cemetery in Evanston, Wyoming, last summer.  Above, graves of my great-grandparents.  Below, headstone for my bab… Read full post »

Kristin Davis, Sarah Jessica Parker, Kim Cattrall and Cynthia Nixon make the best of a bad situation in Abu Dhabi.  (HBO Films) 

A good movie, like a good book, should have a beginning, a middle and an end, but apparently not in that order if you're Sex and the… Read full post »

I remember sitting up in bed into the wee hours the night of November 7, 2000, like Bob Newhart and Suzanne Pleshette, or Mike and Carol Brady, waiting to see who'd won the Bush/Gore election.  Because we lived in Florida, we were getting phone calls from around the country… Read full post »

I grew up watching Art Linkletter do his famous "Kids Say the Darndest Things," always funnier than anything scripted.  I suppose in its way it was an early precursor to reality television.  Later, Bill Cosby took over the concept, and the show, but we will always miss, and remember… Read full post »

My father (right) as a young roughneck in the oil fields of southwestern Wyoming, mid-1950's, just after his service in the Marine Corps.  (Lawrence family photo)

I was born in the sweat and dust of the western oilfields, derricks dotting the sagebrush.  

My father, and… Read full post »