Posts by Jo Maeder
Q&A: Candace Bushnell on KILLING MONICA, what Hollywood needs to do, privacy, reinvention, Mom, and more
Photo by Marion Ettinger It’s indeed a pleasure to welcome Candace Bushnell to my ongoing author Q&As. Ms. Bushnell, of Sex and the City, Lipstick Jungle and The Carrie Diaries fame, talked to me about her new novel Killing Monica (Grand Central Publishing, 2015). Killing Monica is classic…
Read MoreBURIED WORDS OF WISDOM: Love, loss and what I tossed. Or didn’t.
I’m going through two trunks of stuff related to a documentary I once tried to make about my aunt, Julie Arden, and her companion Charlotte Brooks. I’m determined to whittle it down to one big box. It should be easy. Just don’t look too closely. Keep the essentials. Toss, toss, toss. I find scraps…
Read MoreCASEY KASEM: His End-of-life Family Drama and Avoiding Something Similar Yourself
In 1997, I was honored to present a prestigious radio industry award to one of my heroes in the business, Casey Kasem. The sordid drama that has unfolded recently around his death made headlines around the world. As author of a memoir about caring for my mother at the end of her life, I’ve become…
Read MoreMAYA ANGELOU: A Meeting and an Unexpected Gift
I interviewed Maya Angelou for the Greensboro News & Record’s Go Triad arts section in the fall of 2010. She lived in the next town over, Winston-Salem, NC, and was releasing a cookbook for the holidays. I was nervous meeting an icon whose work I had admired greatly for decades, especially after being instructed to only refer…
Read MoreSHIRLEY TEMPLE: The girl, the woman, the dolls
I’ve now been in the doll adoption business about 18 months. If I had to pick the one doll with the most universal, indestructible appeal, it would be Shirley Temple in all her various sizes and outfits. Barbie is too polarizing. Madame Alexander dolls too prissy. No one dislikes Shirley Temple. She appeals to a…
Read MoreTHE 700-DOLL QUESTION
Just in time for Mother’s Day, here’s my essay on the laughter and tears of selling my mother’s dolls that I wrote for The New York Times. Be sure to check out the slideshow as well as the short video made by the very talented Jacob Rosdail. Mama Jo had several Mother & Child dolls in her collection. Here are two that I…
Read MoreThe First Top 10 Forever Home Photo Contest Winners!
Photos of me by Mama Jo To commemorate the anniversary of my mother’s heavenly ascent, I’m introducing the Forever Home Photo Contest using photos sent to me by new “moms” and “dads” of her dolls. Mama Jo loved to take photos. Many were of her/our dolls. Whimsy was never in short supply in her world, nor…
Read MoreQ&A with Carol Miller: Rock DJ, Led Zeppelin Expert, Cancer Survivor (Part 2, the Outtakes)
Part 1 of my interview with New York legendary rock DJ and Led Zeppelin expert Carol Miller ran in the New York Times. Click here to read it and here to listen to the accompanying podcast. This is what was cut out. Behind Carol’s glamorous life is more than forty years of dealing with familial…
Read MoreQ&A with Carol Miller: Rock DJ, Led Zeppelin Expert, Cancer Survivor (Part 1)
I’ve known of Carol Miller since the day she spoke her first word on the New York airwaves in the 1970s. I was an aspiring DJ myself then. There were so few women on the radio that word spread quickly when a new one infiltrated the all boys camp. Seems crazy today, doesn’t it?…
Read MoreCALL OF THE WILD: Fine Dining, Traditions and Roadkill
“I hit a fox last night.” I told Rita this as we drove up Lawndale Drive toward Summerfield, just after we’d passed a small carcass on the side of the road. It was late, the streets empty, the air filled with the sweet sadness of a fleeting summer night. “It dashed in front of my…
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