The train trip across the Southern Alps of New Zealand was billed as five solid hours of verdant alpine meadows dotted with high country sheep interspersed with braided rivers descending from glaciers. Yes, I did get occasional glimpses, but I was also challenged by the subtler beauty of heavy mist. When all else failed during…
Read MoreMisnomers 1. Daylight Savings Time In the late 1950s I was eight years old, a time when my mother routinely told us to clean our dinner plates because “children were starving in Armenia.” I did not grasp this logic but her stern voice convinced me it was my patriotic duty to eat all that…
Read MoreEvery language is enlivened by its array of idioms and my impression is that English is particularly well-endowed, perhaps because Shakespeare played for our team. I have collected dictionaries of idioms, including specialized references, such as idioms of the army (i.e. FUBB) or idioms of the sailor (i.e. son of a gun). Each year there…
Read MoreThere are so many to choose from, which are the best?
Read MoreThere is one thing humans have relied on, well beyond the standard cliché of death and taxes. It is the universal standard of a second as an enduring constant across cultures and time. Some extremist with a jittery trigger finger can do us all in, but the clock will still tick and the earth will…
Read MoreOn December 23rd, I set out on a solo drive 360 miles straight north to the shores of Lake Superior with the rest of the family following shortly behind in a second car. I frequently take this drive and look forward to the entertainment of an audio book, but this time I was driving my husband’s…
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With my mother at the helm, my family’s household was frequently the venue for large gatherings at Christmas and Thanksgiving. These events were always casual and pot-luck, but even so, she nurtured a variety of strategies to make sure that these mandatory family obligations didn’t turn into motherf**ing ordeals. Below are five of her favorite…
Read MoreAt first I was enamored with my new Lenovo laptop. Its peppy red color and compact design were as cute as a bug’s ear and perfect for spontaneous writing venues. And then I tried to open it. The laptop was so sleek that there was no visible latch in front or hinge in the…
Read MoreI wanted to honor Darwin and decided that I would try to share his interest in earthworms by setting up a worm farm. SPOILER ALERT! It failed.
Read MoreSome things are easy to explain, like why I put off a colonoscopy for several years – I think that I am like a lot of Americans. As a group we have always had an uneasy relationship with effluent – but I find it harder to explain why I did not promptly set up my…
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