Blogs

“Think before you speak.” Is there anyone – anyone? – who will doubt the wisdom of this old saw?  I’m going to go with “no.”  I mean, “speak before you think” makes no sense.  “Go […]

I happen to have been born in a Jubilee Year.  A Jubilee Year is a biblical thing, specifically Leviticus 25:8-13, and although it is a fairly complicated concept, it can be summed up as a […]

It was during regular business hours and I was on the phone with someone of some rank, even though it was someone I knew well, and we were discussing Important Business that Mattered. My son […]

 ~I learned all I needed to know about unconditional love… and all the southern humor I could handle~   In 1969, my mother was president of the P.T.A. for my brother’s and my Elementary School. […]

If you were to run into me on the street, or in the grocery store, or any of the places it is possible to run into me when we are not in a pandemic and […]

In 1967, we didn’t need anyone to tell us to stay home. When spring had sprung, “shelter in place” was as close as our own back yards. Upon looking back, however, maybe we had too […]

They say that chickens always come home to roost.  Now that the Duff family has chickens, I’ve found this to be literally true.  In fact, one day, the coop door blew shut. When dusk came […]

For years, my daughter sold Girl Scout cookies.  That wasn’t the only reason she was a Girl Scout, but it may have been the only reason I encouraged her to be a Girl Scout.  I […]

Colleen and Violet were my Angels.  Not the scary fire-and-brimstone kind, but the guardian kind who bring goodness and light and help and possibly a nice snack. My mother was in in-home hospice at the […]

My friend sent me, via text message, this picture of her mother’s cat: Something about this cat picture, sent to me two weeks into house arrest via coronapocalypse, spoke to a place deep inside me.  […]

My husband and I recently celebrated our 21st wedding anniversary.  This means our marriage is now old enough to drink. That’s good.  It needs a drink. On the one hand, you could say that the […]

Back in the 1970s there was a commercial for Faberge Organic Shampoo[1] that had some All-American looking blonde girl telling two friends about how awesome her shampoo was, and they each told two friends and […]

The only explanation that makes sense is that somewhere around the age of 70 we go from being mammals to being reptiles and that is why my parents keep their house near the temperature needed […]

When my mother turned 62 years old, in honor of her first Social Security check she threw herself a toga party.  She did not invite my sister or I because, honestly, would you invite your […]

What my gynecologist actually said was, “Given that you’ll be 50 this summer, the odds of you getting pregnant without reproductive assistance are pretty slim.  So we may want to consider not going forward with […]

I’ve mentioned before that I don’t travel well, and this latest trip proves me right. My son and I were going to Bloomington, Indiana via Indianapolis for his audition for the Jacobs School of Music. […]

It seems like a poor marketing idea for a Chinese restaurant staff to piss off a collection of Jews on Christmas Eve. Let me back up. I live in the notch of the buckle of […]

I read a lot of books.  This is no secret.  I read a physical book every evening before I go to bed.  I have a book on my Kindle which I read in waiting rooms […]