When I heard about Dick Clark's death I remembered how we all used to rush home from school, drop our books and sit in front of the tv watching the kids from Philly dance close and do the lindy on American Bandstand, the show he hosted five days a week.… Read full post »

Hunger is in the air: At the movies, with The Hunger Games. On TV with ads about a War on Hunger, as corporations such as Walmart are recognizing that one in six children in the US goes to bed hungry. And around the world, the percentage is much higher.

Like so… Read full post »

Sermeq Kujalleq, the much-discussed collapsing glacier in Greenland,  from my boat. This is one of the major ice fields of the world, and has been shrinking rapidly. The ice around me seemed frighteningly softened, like ice cream.

(Photos taken by my Austrian travel companion, Katha… Read full post »

This particular Valentine's Day prompts me to express something I’ve wanted to shout from the rooftops for awhile now.

I realize more and more that late love can be just as romantic as young love. And I think what makes it especially precious is that you realize… Read full post »

Since 2001 I've lived on the 22nd floor of a condo in downtown Miami, my home in the sky. I came here from New York with my husband, who had just retired. Three months later he unexpectedly died. So I lived alone here, with my cat Sweetie, for almost 10 years until… Read full post »

Growing up, even though I seemed to make lots of friends I just figured they didn’t know the real me. That’s what my mother had been telling me during my childhood, over and over: “They don’t really know you. They don’t live with you.” I heard it so much… Read full post »

I recently saw two movies dealing with the end of the world -- Melancholia and Tree of Life. These artsy films sparked a remembrance of doomsday fears I once felt. Honestly, I often think of it when this time of year comes around.

What has come to be known as… Read full post »

 Gilbert, Arthur and Anna Schacht, my uncles and aunt 

When I was a child, looking through a family album, I remember asking my mother why there was a face cut out of a photo of a little girl in a frilly dress standing next to my mother’s two… Read full post »

I've never written before about this. Perhaps it will trigger me getting to that memoir; it's all true, and unfolds-- slowly, steadily -- in almost mystifying ways. 

The slim, dark-haired woman sitting at the table in the Westchester brasserie was reading Pride and Preju… Read full post »

Typhoons outside Philippines (ahooy.com) 

Debate has ensued about “crying wolf” and the overhyped hurricane coverage. Here’s an example of the other extreme:

In the fall of 1989 I was living at a basic hotel near the airport, outside Manila. I was executi… Read full post »

The official photo of the Virgin inaugural flight (flightglobal.com), June, 1984. Invited passengers, with Richard Branson on the far left. Can you spot me  way in the back, at the top of the pyramid?

Sir Richard Branson's estate on his private Caribbean island just b… Read full post »

Egon 

A couple of weeks ago, cruising around Scandinavia on the Italian ship MSC Poesia (“poetry” – can there be a lovelier name?), I met a brilliant and charming Swiss man, a tablemate at dinner named Egon who had booked passage on the ship f… Read full post »

Sometimes we need to get outside of ourselves to see who we really are.

Messages poured in from all over the world celebrating the election of Barack Obama as President of the United States. Can you remember his election night speech in Chicago, and the thrill of… Read full post »

Woody Allen’s newest film, Midnight in Paris has become a hit, on its way to becoming his highest grossing film ever. Which reminds me of another film that he made long ago, and my possible connection.

But let me first give you… Read full post »

 grouptravelleader.com

I never really understood my father. Daddy was a “professional gambler,” if betting daily on greyhounds and thoroughbreds could be considered a profession rather than an addiction. His mornings were spent at the desk in m… Read full post »

This Sunday, The Book of Mormon is a shoo-in to win the Tony award for best musical. I was just in NYC and if I had wanted to see the sold-out musical-comedy I could have purchased a scalped ticket for a thousand or so smackeroos. (I/… Read full post »

No, we're not holding hands, we're just relaxing.  Ramona Singer looks surprised -- did she just see Jill Zarin?

I've been addicted to The Real Housewives series for several years now, but this year the meanness and vitriol seem to have gone wild. I just/… Read full post »

One of my last vacations with my husband Chaim Stern, not long before he died of cancer ten years ago, was an April trip which included the Keukenhof gardens outside of Amsterdam.

This April, 2011, two weeks before Easter, I returned to these fabled gardens, walking along… Read full post »

marshallbrain.blogspot.com

One summer many years ago, when I was traveling with my husband and two small sons through Scandinavia, we overnighted in a campground outside of Stockholm.

Our Volkswagen camper’s top was popped up and my two little boys were still snoring… Read full post »

Years of poking about the world have rewarded me with precious items, and yes, tchotchkes (inexpensive "collectibles" in Yiddish, but hard to translate). I've grown to cherish most of them -- beyond the material to the memory.

And I can't imagine discarding them.

So many memories, through the years,… Read full post »