You know how they say “the squeaky wheel gets the grease”? In most cases it’s true; the person who keeps objecting to the way things are gets more attention than the one who quietly keeps doing things the same old way, even if that same…

A really cool invention hit the market in the 1960’s. Called the Visible Woman Model, it was a bizarre cross between a toy and a physiology lesson. Although I never had one, I saw them at friends’ houses, and found them both compelling and creepy.…

Writing to a friend the other day, I closed with this sentiment: “I love my home state.” I knew she did not feel such affection for her own. She and singer-songwriter Dan Fogelberg were from the same place. When a Rolling Stone reporter asked him…

Let’s talk about the holidays. Not the one that comes on a Thursday later this month, but the one that, let’s face it, started – in the stores, at least – even before the first little rain-soaked bumblebee knocked on your door and hollered “TRICK…

Once I get this written, I’m going to treat myself to a mug of chai. Not chai made from a vile powdered mix, but the real thing. Chai made from tea, and seasonings like cardamom, cinnamon and cloves, and piping hot water. Chai finished off…

Families are funny. Just when you believe that everybody’s clan celebrates birthdays by playing miniature golf, and everybody sings “For He’s a Jolly Good Fellow” at funerals, the way your family does, you find out that the folks next door do it differently. Some of…

I used to let my cat, Leo, go outside for a few hours a day. He seemed to love it, and it gave me a chance to brush him without getting gobs of cat hair all over the carpet. Besides, my parents always let Patches,…

I used to worship the sun. My friends and I would wear as little clothing as legal, and go outside when the sun was at its peak. Ask any tanner, and she’ll know when that is. Ten a.m. till two p.m., even later during daylight…

Dear [Name Deleted] Store, You may have noticed that I don’t come around anymore, debit card in hand. We had a good thing for a while there, me charging into your racks of clothes / shelves of food / acres of furniture, you happily taking…

When Joan Didion, one of my all-time favorite writers, wrote her essay “Goodbye to All That,” she was talking about something altogether different from my current concern. She was speaking of Manhattan, where she lived in her 20s, first in love with the place, later…

There’s nothing better than a real summer tomato, raised outside your doorstep or on a local farm. When you see those round red globes on tables at the farmers’ market, you know summer is really here. But every time I slice one up for dinner,…

I have nothing against potlucks. The idea of having everybody contribute to a meal is a nice, generous idea. Think of the poor hostess, peeling potatoes, boiling peas, zesting lemons, toasting hazelnuts. It’s enough to send a poor woman to bed, just as the guests…

I know a lot about trailers. First, and most importantly, don’t call it a trailer, unless it’s one of those vacation contraptions people pull behind their cars. The correct term is “mobile home.” I learned that in a hurry from my first husband, who worked…

We remember good times. We remember bad times. But there are some events that are etched into our collective memory. Each of us knows precisely where we were, and how we found out, when it happened. November 22, 1963, was a Friday, so I was…

Sophia is getting old. For years, my daughter has been telling me she’s twelve, not a day over, but the vet keeps less sentimental records. So now we know this orange tabby is actually sixteen. That’s old in cat years, maybe even older given the…

Dear Baker’s Chocolate Company, You have disappointed me. I’m sure you know I’m a chocoholic, and my favorite chocolate recipe requires two ounces of your fabulous unsweetened baking chocolate. I’ve been making it for years, slipping a box into the shopping cart as the spirit…

Some people like to talk, and some people don’t. Those who like to talk sometimes have trouble telling you much of anything without turning it into a story. I’ve written here before about my need for conversation, and how, when I go out to dinner…

I never had to take the car keys away from my father. As his cancer advanced and his faculties declined, there was no longer any question of driving. The car sat in the garage, to be sold, months later, after he was gone. Mom never…

Islands fascinate me. Though they vary wildly in size and population – the mind boggles comparing Manhattan Island (22 square miles, almost two million residents) with Kahoolawe, the smallest in Hawaii (45 square miles and completely deserted). Think of all the great mysteries set on…

“I think that I shall never see / a poem lovely as a tree.” You may not think much of Joyce Kilmer’s poem, but he has a point. Trees are really lovely. Growing up, my family’s backyard tree was a weeping willow. (Are there willows…