For anyone trying to write about Afghanistan, the war in that ornery, cantankerous and choleric nation is one of the fastest-moving targets around.

Writing about it, like fighting it, is like playing dodge-ball with a fruit fly. Like shooting minnows in the sea. Like pitting Wile E. Coyote ag… Read full post »

One of the downsides to being a news junkie is the occasional lack of discrimination, especially when it comes to reading the local rags, which, as we know, are so hungry for readers that they will cover just about anything to draw people in and drive up advertising revenue.

Crime -- the… Read full post »

The Nobel Prize Committee has been handing out awards like candy this past week -- and that was quite a sugar-coated jaw breaker for Barack Obama -- but I just don't understand why there is never a recipient from the fashion world.

That said, it has been quite a year for… Read full post »

The only people who would think it was a good idea to let three 17-year old suburban high school girls go to Ft. Lauderdale for spring break would be other 17-year olds.

But somehow our parents -- maybe because they needed a spring break themselves -- drove us to the Greyhound station… Read full post »

 When I was a senior in high school, the quote I used under my yearbook picture paraphrased the great English poet, John Milton:

"How soon hath time, the subtle thief of youth, stolen on its wing my one and seventeenth year?"

Believe me, I was no wise-before-my-time teenager -- I was a party… Read full post »

Fidgety in school? Shy in crowds? Feeling blue? Tired? Can't sleep a full eight hours every night? Get a little annoyed from time to time? Trouble focusing at work?

Just can't exercise or eat right? Don't have time for your period? Prefer one pill a month for bone health rather than… Read full post »

A few days ago, I got it into my head to whip up a batch of Boeuf Bourguignon -- or Boeuf à la Bourguignonne -- the luscious, wine-drenched beef stew first made famous in America by our beloved French Chef Julia Child and most recently by Julie Powell… Read full post »

Though not as popular as June, September is a big month for weddings. Maybe it's the added bonus of an end-of-summer celebration, an ushering in of cooler and crisper days, and the opportunity to feature rich, warm colors at the ceremony and reception.

But two joyous and much-anticipated wedd… Read full post »

After reading Maureen Dowd's column in today's NYT, I've had to rethink my position as stated below. In a better world, we could ignore Wilson's childish behavior, but the truth is, unfortunately, that if we don't effectively fight back, he and his cronies (and their backward thinking) will… Read full post »

Who am I? Who are you? And who the heck -- we would like to know -- are they?

It's such a lovely day that I thought I would shake it up a bit by pondering one of the great head-scratchers of all time; that is, what really is our human nature?

Far… Read full post »

When the young Teddy Kennedy campaigned for the Senate in front of our suburban Boston home, my whole family ran out to greet him.

For months, my father had been actively campaigning for Kennedy and others on the Democratic ticket, standing out in front of the local dump, weekend… Read full post »

With football season now gearing up, it's hard not to think of this health care reform debate as the Super Bowl of politics.

So much of our political, economic and social life over the years has been in preparation -- in training -- for this big game.

That's why things have… Read full post »

It's one thing to watch snippets of Health Care Reform Town Hall meetings on the evening news, but entirely another to find oneself in an auditorium packed with 850+ people, including a bunch who are angry, belligerent and even violent.

This particular Town Hall took place last night in Durha… Read full post »

Nothing like a birthday to make us once again come to terms with time's assault on our looks, physique and, most importantly, our precious vanity.

Shame on us, in this culture of youth, for letting lines and wrinkles creep onto our face, that part of ourselves we must put forward to… Read full post »

After spending the past six weeks buried under five seasons and 63 episodes of the astounding HBO series Six Feet Under, I'm greatly relieved to find myself not only still alive but maybe a bit wiser and even -- dare I say it? -- a stronger person for the experience.

Far… Read full post »

(continued from preceding days)

It was only about half an hour later, when Jamie and Jim were sitting in the front seat of his old Ford pickup, on an overlook up in the Sangre de Cristos, gazing west at a crescent moon with Venus and what looked like Mars off… Read full post »

(Continued from previous days)

When Maureen raced out of the ladies' room, she slammed the door open against the wall, where it stuck.

Jamie stood there in that blue neon light against pea green walls and watched Maureen now yelling at Jim, who was leaning against the bar with a… Read full post »

One thing that makes all hotels in Santa Fe equal is the proliferation of glossy magazines in each room, stacks of thick booklets to help guide tourists through the maze of galleries and restaurants on which the city's lifeblood and lifestyle depend.

On the same Friday afternoon, after their s… Read full post »

Santa Fe is not America. It's not really New Mexico, either.

It's The City Different in The Land of Enchantment.

At least according to the brochures.

But no wonder so many people, especially women, who visit Santa Fe for the first time end up going home, quitting their jobs, selling their houses… Read full post »

What did you do this weekend?

If you rode your bike 50 miles or went to five parties or helped build a Habitat house or saw the Rolling Stones live or finally finished your novel or helped your kid build a space ship or learned to play the sax or kayaked… Read full post »

When my dear husband and I were married thirteen years ago, I was a big sissy.

I didn't know I was a sissy -- after all, I was 39 and had been around the block more times than I could count -- but once we tied the knot, I could… Read full post »

Mine, too.

If you're like me, you spent a lot of your childhood summers barefoot. Not because you didn't have shoes, but, well, because that's what kids do. Or used to do.

You walked, ran, rode your bike, climbed trees and even played kickball with nary a shoe on either… Read full post »

Back in 1978, while a student in Paris, I passed by a McDonald's on the Boulevard St. Michel on the Left Bank.

I nearly fell over. What was that fast-food joint -- apparently one of the first in France -- doing in the hallowed Latin Quarter, within shouting distance… Read full post »

Whenever I tell people I've just converted our little cultivated area of land into a weed garden, they think I'm now growing pot.

But our weeds have no redeeming value whatsoever -- they merely are. And they are not illegal.

Call it sheer laziness, but I have, after careful consideration, come… Read full post »