Where there is more than one child, inevitably, there is inequality.  Just as some are born blonde, or hazel-eyed, some are born with perfect pitch.  And some, alas, are not. That doesn’t keep both of them from trying out for the school’s singing troupe.  And it doesn&rsquo… Read full post »

Please, dear Lord, may the gift certificates my daughters receive from the mall not be redeemable at the Tattoo Palace.

May the client who always sends me those iced cookies from that place in Wisconsin send them again.  But not the tower, God.  Please, please, not the… Read full post »

Dear twentysomething,

Maybe these aren’t the best years of your life.  Maybe you miss college, the hug of a dorm room, the hush of a library.  Maybe your obnoxious, preening professors don’t seem nearly as dangerous as your stupid, scheming bosses.  Maybe you know too many… Read full post »

When my first book was about to come out, all my writer friends told me to make the rounds of local libraries and independent bookstores to introduce myself.

I started at the library, arriving at the desk with my brightest salesperson-on-commission- smile, and told them… Read full post »

            A funny thing happens when you publish a book:  People expect you to be smart.   And I don’t mean the manageable kind of smart, like witty-at-a-cocktail party, or entertaining-at-the-soccer-field, or even
… Read full post »

On Christmas Day at the airport, you expect to see certain out-of-the-ordinary things.  Like Santa hats on baggage handlers.   Ornament earrings setting off the metal detector.   Tinsel stuck to shoes as they go down the conveyor belts.   And maybe,/… Read full post »

If you asked somebody else’s grandmother to bring something to a Midwestern mid-summer picnic, she would probably make potato salad.  Or tuck wildflowers into a Mason jar.   But my maternal grandmother always smuggled in something less predictable.  Like the time she walked
… Read full post »