A friend recently asked me why I use a childhood picture for my profile here.

There’s a really good reason.   The “mini me” in that picture?   She’s my touchstone.  

Her impish beauty delights me.  Her little smile—the wonderment in… Read full post »

I’m going to turn down the heat a little bit and just talk about something less controversial this time.

You see…I retire, rather early, in about two weeks. And it tickles me that whenever I tell someone that, s/he says, “Wait—you don’t look old enough to retire!&rdquo… Read full post »

My recent article about Arizona raised some hackles...but also some awareness of the perils of profiling on both sides of the color line.

And it brought back memories, for me, of some of the reasons why I'm not shocked as easily as some about the supposed resurgence of racism in America--now… Read full post »

I recently commented on yet another blog about the Arizona immigration law that has people boycotting and marching and writing their congressmen and women.

All admirable acts.   And it's absolutely imperative that those acts continue--make no mistake about that.

Here comes the big "BUT" of cours… Read full post »

This won’t be one of my most masterful or poetic posts.   But it may well be one of the most joyful.

You see…I have yearned for many years to attend The Gathering of Nations, one of the most well respected and attended pow wows in the… Read full post »

After my sad farewell to the educational system...these two notes arrived.  The first was a sweet little, "I HOPE you're the teacher I remember from back when" note in my email inbox at school:

 " Good morning!

I was on Facebook this morning on a page called, You… Read full post »

The language was PR department perfect.  Earnest.  Hopeful.  Helpful, even.

But the purpose of the letter—buried somewhere toward the end--was also clear.  So clear that it took my breath at first.

The district, it said, due to budget constraints, would not be able to off… Read full post »

My hard drive finally crashed forever a couple of days ago.I could write a whole piece on that—probably will.   But today’s story is much more fun.  And more dear to me.

Because among the few fragments of things the Geek Squad were able to salvage was… Read full post »

So, I covered the Van Morrison “sing-alike” Pattinson did—see my previous entry or go to my list of links.   That was fun, but...frivolous.

This time, I’m going to get a little more serious to “review” his latest film.  Because I think that no matter how… Read full post »

I wasn't going to post another music thing for awhile until THIS happened.  I mean...who knew?

I've heard all the woo woo Twilight stuff Robert Pattinson has done, including the little piano lullaby and all that which I suppose every "Team Edward" girlie has had on her ITouch for...EVER.

What I… Read full post »

I've written about my father's "fishing" lessons, but not about the love of music of all kinds I inherited from him.   He was the dj for most of his friends' parties for a reason.  

As a child, I often watched him mix "reel to reel" tapes (four hours or more, some of the… Read full post »

He’s gone now, my fisherman father, Ernest. He passed away a couple of years ago in an Alzheimers fog. But every red dawn here in my Arizona desert lair, when there’s a chill in the breezes that reminds me of home, I think of him.

Like Norman Maclean, I… Read full post »

 That title is misleading.  I haven't left yet.

But the first thing I did when I decided to retire early—really decided—was to reserve myself a big cabin on the North Rim of the Grand Canyon for this fall.   

Myself, I said.  No companions.  No pets.… Read full post »

I watched 17 Again recently—guilty pleasure, this one.  I really enjoyed it, even though it’s the kind of formulaic  comedy I make fun of most of the time.  The late Blake “Blank Check” Snyder, my screenwriting mentor and good friend, used to chide me that i… Read full post »

I’m afraid to fly.

Ooooo.  How many ways can you spin that?  Well…let’s do the literal one first.   When I was younger, I loved the feel of a plane taking off and the delicious hopeful glee I felt when landing in a place I’d never been before.  My fi… Read full post »

I watched 17 Again recently—guilty pleasure, this one.  I really enjoyed it, even though it’s the kind of formulaic  comedy I make fun of most of the time.  The late Blake “Blank Check” Snyder, my screenwriting mentor and good friend, used to chide me that if I… Read full post »

Spent a lot of time over the past couple of days talking about rock stars behaving badly.   One in particular who shall remain nameless...

So I want to celebrate one who is behaving nobly.  I will not use his name either.  He wouldn’t like that.  Not because he’… Read full post »

Ah, my former journalist face is very red today.  With GOOD reason.

I wrote a post about the glibness of John Mayer and his unfortunate use of the "N" word...and then discovered, via one of my friends (the amazing "big fat trauma queen," no less)  here on Open Salon, that… Read full post »

The trouble with John Mayer…

Well, John boy has a few troubles, I suppose.  

To backtrack a bit…he got himself into a real pickle recently, I guess.   I’m not even really sure what the big controversy was about, but the way I interpret it, he dropped the… Read full post »

If you’re blissfully in love—“spoiler alert.”   They usually say that in movie reviews that will give away how the story finally ends.  I’m not sayin’ I can predict how yours will end…I’m just sayin’ that if you read on and any of… Read full post »

True story.

On Christmas day, after having made all the goodies for dinner and while waiting solely for the last casserole to bake to the desired golden brown, I wandered off to our home theater to find the Foo Fighter’s Wembley Stadium concert starting on Palladium.

True to my former rock… Read full post »

A few weeks ago, my daughter and my ex berated me soundly and loudly for watching the TV show Hoarders.

"WHY do you want to SEE that?"  my daughter cried.

"HOW can you watch this?   Why would you want to see someone living in filth?   It's sick!   It's sick tha… Read full post »

No, this isn't about that Who.   But...I found out a little bit more about who I was at the same time that I was writing about them, Roger Daltrey in particular, pretty often, as a rock critic for the Chicago Sun Times. 

I was, in fact, probably the sole black… Read full post »

I never "tweet" anymore.   I still receive little notices that someone is "following me" on Twitter.  Usually people I do not know and have no desire to.  Like MySpace, Twitter apparently has a gizmo that just introduces you to new people for the sake of introducing you to new peo… Read full post »

I fell for it.  Marie Osmond looking pencil thin in her pencil skirt.  That...football dude.   All the celebs who've lost big poundage by eating cardboard cookies finally convinced me to try, one last time, the Nutrisystem..."system."

Like a lot of women my age, especially Bl… Read full post »