As I sort through the various missed opportunities and regrets in my life, I keep coming back to two things; the time that I absolutely blew my college interview at Stanford (when asked to describe “who I was” to some pompous interviewer, I said, “that’s personal and I don’t wish to discuss it!), and the…
Read MoreAllan Sherman, of Hello Muddah, Hello Fadduh fame, enjoyed an intense but brief popularity, releasing three albums in 1963 and then a rapid decline and premature death at age 49. But it is still easy to identify an Allan Sherman fan some 46 years later. I was standing in a buffet line with a medical…
Read MoreI am a Midwestern girl who spent her vacations fearfully swimming in the fresh water lakes of the upper peninsula of Michigan. Bobbing in a boat offshore, the surface water was a rich dark blue, but beneath the color quickly turned to a rusty brown and then inky blackness with rays of light that emanated upwards from…
Read MoreMy interest in knitting starting innocently enough some 30 years ago when we were visiting Ireland. The island was awash in American tourists whose first order of business was the purchase of a hand knit Irish sweater which was then worn throughout the trip. I thought a nice riff on this tradition would be to…
Read MoreThe first image of Susan Boyle was a frowzy older women quietly sitting eating a sandwich in a room teeming with hopefuls waiting to perform on the British TV reality show, “Britain’s Got Talent.” She came forward for a quick backstage interview and cheerfully admitted that she was never married, and in fact had never…
Read MoreMy parents were married in 1950 and three and a half years later they had three children, my older brother Ralph, me, and my younger brother Charlie. When Charlie was around two years old he developed a very high fever and was rushed off to the hospital. The doctor told my parents he had polio. …
Read MoreI have inherited many gifts from my father, both genetically and by example – reasonable looks (except for my fleshly earlobes), brown hair that just refuses to go grey, kindness, loyalty and commitment to family. But among my siblings, there is one thing my father and I share exclusively – our inability to carry a…
Read MoreSunday our carillon bell choir was scheduled to play during the prelude and the offertory. The prelude is a snap, since this is when the congregation is filing in, and the noise drowns out any mistakes that might be made. The offertory is another story. It is drop dead quiet and all eyes are fixated…
Read MoreI have been mistaken for an accomplished musician two times now, with predictably disastrous results. It is perhaps understandable since I became the family custodian of my mother’s two octave set of brass carillon bells, which she used in her various musical endeavors, including family bell ringing at Christmas time. I get calls at holiday…
Read MoreNote this essay is a companion piece to previous essay titled: “Human Pearls,” describing gallbladder surgery. I returned home from the hospital following my gallbladder removal feeling basically fine, but anticipating a few days of serious recuperation on the couch in front of the TV. I heartily agree that TV is mostly a vast wasteland,…
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