I know I am making too much of this Stanley Cup series, but I can’t help myself. The re-match that has the champion Detroit Red Wings defending against the powerful Pittsburgh Penguins holds allegorical fascination for me.

In my heart, this series has nothing to do with hockey an… Read full post »

I’ve given thanks every day this summer that I am unemployed. Rather than trudging off to my stressful old newspaper job every day, I instead get to be witness to the summer in which my son, Will, happily transitions to the “double digits,” as he calls them.

Today, my little boy turn… Read full post »

I was living in my parents’ basement, waitressing, attending college part-time, flat broke and in need of transportation. My parents, desperate to get me on the road out of their basement, offered to take the room and board I had paid them over the summer to buy me a car. My… Read full post »

Bruce Springsteen got snubbed. So did Bonnie Raitt, Elvis Costello, Elton John, Patti Smith, Nancy Wilson, Helen O'Connell, Tom Petty and Grace Slick.

These amazing artists didn't make the final list of nominees for National Public Radio's project to explore what listeners and music experts… Read full post »

It was during a conversation with my son a couple years ago that I realized he had absolutely no idea what it was I did for a living.

These past few days have been mostly dedicated to getting ready for my yard sale, the culmination of the purge of my household. Surrounded by stacks of things to be tagged and sold, I had to take time out to file for unemployment.

I’ve been laid off from my newspaper job since… Read full post »

I found myself having to explain to my son the difference between being “fired” and being “laid off” after I lost my job on April Fools Day. (Some corporate overlord has an ironic sense of humor, eh?)

“You get fired for doing a bad job,” I told him. “Don&rsq… Read full post »

One night I went to sleep a fifth-grader with tiny bumps on my chest and woke up the next morning with breasts rivaling those of tennis star Simona Halep. I exaggerate just a bit, of course, but it’s more truth than fiction.

Simona Halep has folks talking because of her plans… Read full post »

It’s been a week since motorists and passersby competed with armored truck crews and police for money that landed like litter along the I-75/Chrysler freeway in Detroit.

It was about 8:30 a.m. on June 11 when a Loomis armored car transporting an unknown amount of cash… Read full post »

I sat at the dining room table, stitching together the King Tut toga I had promised my kid for Halloween, when I burst into tears.

We bought the Egyptian pharaoh hat at the King Tut exhibit in Indianapolis this summer on one condition: that it be Will's Halloween… Read full post »

There isn’t enough room to keep a lot of CDs in my car, so I rotate them in and out. My musical whims are like Michigan’s mercurial weather: they change from moment to moment, mood to mood.

When I was purging my household for my annual… Read full post »

It happened in a flash.

Teeth bared, snarling, our new puppy lunged for my face. I was trying to keep her from nipping my kid when she set her sights on me instead. BAM! My right eye bounced, flashing white, like it was whapped by a baseball. My upper lip stung. My… Read full post »

All I could think about last week was Saturday night. My husband and I had a big date planned — dinner and a movie —to celebrate our 23rd wedding anniversary. Our 9-year-old son would spend the night at his grandmother’s; after all, who knows how late we’d be out or what… Read full post »

When I first saw the new Burger King commercial for its 99-cent kiddie meal, I was horrifed that my 9-year-old son was sitting alongside me.

My little boy, the one who can’t get to sleep without a stuffed animal and a light on in his room, watches intently as gyrating women dance… Read full post »

It’s been a week since my job as managing editor of Michigan’s newest daily newspaper was “eliminated” for economic reasons.

I pondered the milestone as I brushed my teeth this morning. When I looked into the mirror, my heart skipped a beat and I shrieked.

Albert Einstein was l… Read full post »

How a gift from long ago got my son his dream dog

My in-laws never gave each other lavish gifts. But after my father-in-law, Don, was nearing the end of his battle with lung cancer, he enlisted my help with a birthday gift for my mother-in-law.… Read full post »

But that’s the… Read full post »

 

It didn’t take former USA Today editor and reporter Jim Hopkins to tell 42,000 Gannett Co. employees that newspaper life as they knew it was undergoing a dramatic and fundamental change.

However, it took Hopkins and his Gannett Blog (http://gannettblog.blogspot.com) to connect… Read full post »

Southeast Michigan is in a hockey daze, and we’re hoping that when Friday’s final game in the Stanley Cup series is over, we’ll be able to savor a sweet hockey hangover.

I know, I know. For most of you, watching a game played on ice in the middle of June seems weirdly… Read full post »

 

I don’t remember a lot of music that had such the pervasive, uniting, boogying effect on everyone in the world — everyone — like Michael Jackson’s “Thriller.”

There were other albums popular back in the 1980s that came close to touching the mass boogie… Read full post »

The Detroit Red Wings are heading to the Stanley Cup finals! The team won 2-1 in overtime after a great game Wednesday against the Chicago Blackhawks.

Michigan in general — and Detroit in particular — needed this bit of good news. Take a minute to send some good vibes in Detroit's…

Read full post »

When a small hole first appeared in the wall of the first-floor bathroom of my old bungalow around Mother’s Day a year ago, I was curious. For about a week, I silently watched as the hole grew from the size of a pen tip to about the size of a thumb.… Read full post »

There is no better testament to the real estate mantra of “location, location, location,” than Livingston County, Michigan. The once-rural community is the crossroads of two major freeways. It’s also the bull’s-eye between the Motor City and Michigan’s capital of Lansing… Read full post »

After scrubbing up like a surgeon and donning an old apron to protect his clothes, my 10-year-old son is ready for action. He’s pounded the chicken and beaten the eggs and he’s ignited the gas stove with a little help from me.

He’s ready to cook.

Me? I’m enjoying… Read full post »