Both my grandfathers, Ned Crawford, and Louis Houle, served in World War I. Both came home whole in body.   I never had a chance to meet Louis Houle my paternal grandfather  who died when my father was six. He served in the war and while the war didn’t kill h… Read full post »

Poached Salmon

by Melissa Houle

              Trout is delicious  but always a minefield of tiny bones. Tuna is too redolent of the tuna sandwiches in my school lunches. Sole is good although I’ve always/… Read full post »

Flowerbox Avenue--One of Papyrus Acres' nicest neighborhoods

       It may take a village to raise a child, but it only takes one crazed artist to make a village. A paper village, any/… Read full post »

            I’ve made fusses, then calmed down.  I’ve made messes, then (well, eventually) cleaned them up. I’ve made meals, cakes, pies, cookies, which have long since been eaten. I’ve been drawing since I could/… Read full post »

 

 By Melissa Houle

Late one summer night when I was six, my mother and I returned home exhausted after hours at the Emergency room, me with my broken left wrist newly immobilized in a plaster cast. Once home, we then collapsed at the kitchen table and ate a dinn… Read full post »

In some old family album I have no idea where to find, there's a picture of me and my sister wearing our Christmas felt skirts on some 1960's Christmas Day. I remember how they itched and how the exuberant yarn fringe sewn around the bottom hem tickled my highly ticklish knees. … Read full post »

Dear OS friends,

 I have to admit, I love Christmas carols.  I   listen to them all through December until I've had the luxury to get a little tired of them  until next year. I'm not talking about horrible arrangments of Silver Bells, Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer, … Read full post »

            November 4, 2008 to November 5, 2009.  Coming home after dinner at my father’s house on Election Night last year, I played the choral movement of Beethoven’s Ninth Symphony loud.   I didn’t stop playin/… Read full post »

     For some the predominant emotion of 9/11 is grief. For me, it's more an alloy of grief but more of anger, full of dross and impurities. If my feelings were a sculpture, there would be a lot of twisty, jagged, smoke blackened metal involved,… Read full post »

Just one? Oh crap.  My choice would have to be Some Like it Hot with Tony Curtis, Jack Lemmon and Marilyn Monroe.  The premise, the dialog, and the details are all superb. After accidentally witnessing the Valentine's Day Massacre in 1929 Chicago, Joe (Tony Curtis) and Gerry&… Read full post »

       Mr. President, I know you have millions of people telling you what you should do in office, and I hate to add more to your plate, but since I have this opportunity, I will speak.  Your daughters and Joe Biden’s granddaughters  have the great good f/… Read full post »

First off, I’ll admit New Year’s Eve is not my favorite holiday. In my childhood, it was a reminder that Christmas vacation was almost over and soon we’d be heading back to school, homework, bag lunches, playground dramas, etcetera.  It also meant that we’d come home from/… Read full post »

September at La Romita 

The Rome airport is officially called the Fiumicino Airport, now.  I feel its  former name, Leonardo Da Vinci, was far more emblematic of my two week painting holiday in Italy in September 2003.  I am the veteran of many art history courses, and the I… Read full post »

If perchance you do not already have enough butterfat in your life, I have exactly the cure you need.  For everyone else, these are not cookies to serve to your cardiologist. But they are a delicious way to compromise your cardiovascular health in December. Ease your guilt by vigorous skiing, sk… Read full post »

    &… Read full post »

My mother is the head  chef of more than fifty years’ worth of my family’s Thanksgivings. She’s the one with the accumulated expertise of what time in the morning to face that pale, naked bird, stuff its’ cavities full of bready dressing, set it on the rack, pour a cup of… Read full post »

        Well, here we are again, still arguing about Ralph Nader, for the third presidential election in a row.  I’m not too worried; this election is Obama’s to lose, and I don’t think he’s going to lose it. Nor do I want to revisit 200/… Read full post »