Lake Champlain
We all live with a profound sense of place, of where we are in the world, of where we reside….
The End of Days
The month of April was a bit unsettled in Connecticut this year. First, we had the earthquake that no one…
Things That Disappear
The pale yellow “favorite blanket” that you had as a child. The hair dryer that covered your head like a…
A Member of the Club
Another one gone. Another law that was trying to help people. We knew that they were going to do it….
Do Not Ask Why the Sea Has Forsaken You
It was a rough five days on and under the seas last week. On June 14th, an overloaded fishing boat…
Blue Skies
In the mid-nineteen-nineties, I lived for a summer on Deer Isle, Maine. It was a pretty typical Maine summer. Foggy…
Devon is Dry
The rains came after a week of heat. Finally. Thank God. Prior to their arrival it was baking and Devon,…
Virtually Anything
So Omicron has arrived with a vengeance and people have started using the dreaded “R” and “D” words again. They…
The Last of the Best
Watch a video of this blob by going to my You Tube Channel. The text came when we were in…
Blue Skies
I didn’t get back up into the hills again for several months. The repeated storms of January and February had…
For the Kids
So they want all the schools to be open again. In 100 days. Or sooner. Get those kids back in…
The Dead Branch
I took a walk up into the hills yesterday. It was a leaden sunless day, but the temperature had risen…
In the Virtual Trenches
At 10:45 every morning, one of my elementary ESL classes meets for half an hour online. There are five students…
The Stones of Summer
The painted stones began to appear in late April along the unpaved road that ran past the house that had…
We Are Experiencing Technical Difficulties
“Are we still going to do Google Meets over the summer?” one of my fifth-grade students asked me at eleven…
Corona in Connecticut, and Italy, and the UK, and California…
The Venetians have gotten their city back. Certainly not the way they wanted to get it back, not as the…
Fear and Trembling
It’s that time of year again, Black History Month, the month when I once again try to explain to nine…
Don’t Send Her Back
The defining chant of Donald Trump’s 2020 reelection campaign is almost certainly going to be “send her back.”
Socialism in America?
That’s right, you heard me, SOCIALISM. It seems that these days some people actually stand up and announce that they…
The Wall I Knew
Want to watch a video of me reading this blog? Go to my You Tube Channel. On a cold Sunday…
My Cousin in California
On November 9th, two weeks after my cousin in Pittsburgh, in her post-shooting gloom, bowed out of all social media,…
My Cousin in Pittsburgh
On October 29th, two days after a gunman burst into a synagogue in Pittsburgh, Pa. and shot eleven people dead,…
Liar, Liar, Pants on Fire
If you’d asked me before the Kavanaugh confirmation hearings how I felt about them, I’d probably have told you I…
Hot, Hot, Hot
You knew it before you got there, knew it if you’re one of those people who checks weather.com before you…
Fathers, Sheisters, and Other New Yorkers Who Shall Not Remain Blameless
A look at the calendar tells me that Father’s Day is here again. Father’s Day these days, other than being…
The Future is Now
If you’d asked me a few years ago, only a few, whether or not I ever read dystopian fiction, I…
Merit Pay, Anyone?
I wasn’t going to weigh in on this because, well, everyone else has, and what am I going to say…
Gina
Rainer Maria Rilke was an Austro-Hungarian writer who was born, wrote, and died a long time ago. He was most…
Wallis, This One’s for You
Finally, some good news for a change. Amidst the debacle of “tax reform” and what appears to be rampant sexual…
The End of the World
In the nearly twenty years I’ve been teaching in the US public schools, I’ve had quite a few kids walk…
What They Remember
It’s been the summer of meeting up with former students, students I haven’t seen in more than a decade, a…
Where We Come From
A family history is a collection of stories, stories told and retold and made old not so much by the…
Persistence
In our elementary school, we start teaching children about character traits in the third grade. We teach them to recognize…
To The Barricade
I never marched in a demonstration before yesterday. I don’t like crowds much, or noise, or commotion. I’m a stay-at-home-with-a-book…
2017: Brace For Impact
At the beginning of the Second World War in Europe, there was a period of time, eight months and one…
Election Week 2016
Last week didn’t begin well. On Monday afternoon, we had to hospitalize our cat, Socrates. He’d been battling pancreatitis at…
Where You Can Put Your Putin
No one could love Russia more than I do. You have to love a country where the cabbie taking you home…
A Little History
They say if you don’t know your history, you’re doomed to repeat it and this certainly seems to be what’s…
De Ja Vu All Over Again
There it was again. That feeling. The feeling that I hadn’t felt in a long time, but that I still…
Madness
And so it began yesterday upon the frozen fields of Iowa, that great democratic act of choosing. The Iowans have…
Lists
As another year draws to its close and the next one edges near, there seems to be in both the…
Living in America
There are many things I could write about as the dark and confusing year of 2015 draws to its close,…
My Immigration Was Better Than Your Immigration
You have to feel sorry for the Republicans. They finally manage to field two candidates who speak fluent Spanish, who…
The Neighborhood
Can you believe it? The maple leaves are starting to turn. It seems like summer, while we’re still in the…
The Color of Soul
I can’t remember how long I’d known my first boyfriend before he told me he was Black. I was surprised,…
Forty Days in the Wilderness
And so…as the school year draws to its close and the frenzy of testing slows, (but does not yet completely…
The Tattered Hem of Winter
For me, there are three kinds of winters. The first kind is the rainy, gray, damp, but relatively mild winter…
Testing Testing One-Two-Three
On page 58 of the January 26th issue of The New Yorker, there is a cartoon showing a numb-looking teacher…
January
When I lived in Russia, my Russian friends used to try to get me to tell them all the things…
Amerika 2015
There is a widening perception in the country that the American Dream is a tattered and fraying garment slipping quickly…
November Anniversaries
Americans, who tend to shun both the specific and the historical, are today celebrating Veteran’s Day in one great, glorious…
What Makes Them Do IT?
When I was in high school, a friend of mine presented me with a copy of Friedrich Nietzsche’s Thus Spake…
They Flew Through The Air
One of the things the new Common Core emphasizes is the ability to distinguish between serious and not-so-serious sources of…
Westward Ho!
Keeping on the travel theme, my husband and I had reason to strike out for California last weekend, and if…
Death in Venice . . . California
When you think of Venice in literature, what do you think of? John Ruskin’s The Stones of Venice? The novels…
Holiday Reading
As we sit in front of the television watching football and trying to digest our Thanksgiving dinners, or attempt to…
The Devil is in the Details
Well, there’s so much good news to choose from, I hardly know where to start. The Obamacare web site debacle?…
The Girl in the Photo
It’s that time of year again. The leaves are falling, my wormy quinces are lying under the trees waiting for…
No Pain No Gain
I was watching PBS news the other night and saw an interview with Amanda Ripley, the author of the new…
Native Son
It’s been a very bad week. First of all, Obama, he’s my guy, but he’s really made a mess of…
College is Killing Us
Obama has finally figured out what a lot of us could have told him a long time ago: college is…
Mother’s Day
Mother’s Day is now a trip to the cemetery for me, I’m afraid. A trip to the florist’s first, of…
What’s in a Name?
When Zubeidat Tsarnaeva, the mother of the alleged Boston bombers, said this last week that she was sorry the family…
First Aid
On September 18th, the US government announced that the United States Agency for International Development (USAID), after two decades of…
September 11th
And so another anniversary of the September 11th bombing of the World Trade Center has come and gone replete with…
The Pip Squeak Sikh
Several years ago, on the first day of school, a young child was delivered by their mother to the class…
Independence Days
Countries really don’t leave each other alone, do they? They are always bothering each other, invading, claiming sovereignty, imposing annoying…
Summer Solstice
What do you mean the summer’s over? Why it just started didn’t it? I only got out of school last…
Juneteenth
Juneteenth is an African-American holiday officially celebrated in 41 states of the United States. It commemorates the final abolition of…
