April, 2009
Staying put and loving it 
I sit by a flowing stream, listening as each droplet trickles down a tiny mountain of rocks. Barefoot and relaxed after my mid-afternoon yoga session by the lake and a lunchtime cocktail with my husband, I sink further into the chaise longue. What will I do next? Soak in the hot tub? Go to the pool? It’s all so tempting – so I give up and close my eyes, all the while thinking how lucky I am to be in … Loachapoka.
PLAY: The Juice of Life
He called it Callahan’s Driveway. The kids were bored. It was the middle of summer, the excitement of summer vacation faded. And now the warm evening stretched before them like an eternity. Jerry Callahan – the cartoonist from the Philadelphia Bulletin – got down on his hands and knees in the driveway and drew with colored chalk, creating a design big and elaborate, and segmented, with numbers inside each section. Now, he told the gang of kids, go get little stones. You’re to stand at one en
What's in your bag?
As you look through these handbags, guess which is the purse of the former streaker. Every Friday these purse owners meet for coffee to tackle the world’s problems. Although presidents have failed to recognize their expertise on world and national affairs, they’ve managed to become even more expert on one another. The rule is, you can talk about anyone, as long as she’s at the table. During one morning confab, the streaking story came to light. But who was the culprit? We know, but we’re not tel
One-Pot Wonders
Will things ever slow down? I rush home from substitute teaching hoping I have a casserole in the freezer to throw on the table before everyone rushes out again. Who knew we’d become parents of a Formula One team member? Race cars are so foreign to me. Do we tailgate? Do I get to cook for anybody?
Looks and Personality
It is one of those flavors that people either love or hate, but almost everyone agrees that fennel’s feathery foliage, and the colorful caterpillars and butterflies that it attracts, adds much to any garden.
Play or playing
THE worst thing about parenting is not knowing how good you are at the job until it’s too late to do anything about it. It’s not until they start spilling their guts to a therapist that you realize you messed up.
Praise the hard work, not the smarts
For a couple of decades we were told that if our self-esteem was higher, we’d be so much better. So we told our kids how smart and beautiful they were. We loved it when our own intelligence was extravagantly praised. Wading through this hip-deep praise was to create a generation of better, happier people.
SAY NO TO NAGGING
My husband, Tom, used to play softball in the AAA league. No, maps and tow-service was not involved. AAA is the Amateur Athletic Association. He was on a winning team, and spent a lot of time on the road and in restaurants. One evening, while eating dinner with a teammate and his family, I was shocked to hear Tom’s teammate instruct his cuddly (read somewhat overweight) child to, “Eat the fat on your meat, son, if you want to hit home runs.”
Take a powder
Ever wake up and realize the face you put on almost twenty-four hours ago is still there except, you know, slightly less than perfect looking? I have a lazy habit of never washing my face before I go to bed. (Sorry, Mom.) So, when I heard there was a makeup you could wear overnight – without worrying what it would do to your pores – I almost didn’t believe it.
Teen story time
When I tell my high school sophomores that we’re going to read from Homer’s Iliad or Shakespeare’s Julius Caesar or Chinua Achebe’s novel Things Fall Apart, they always ask, “Is there a movie we can watch instead?”
