Posts by Jo Maeder
CUTE OR CREEPY? Mama Jo’s House of Dolls Captivates Media
Do you think dolls are cute or creepy? Most people fall in one camp or the other. Yet every culture has dolls. Why? My theory is they go back to when a cave woman made one to amuse her kid while she rubbed two sticks together to make a fire. Or perhaps she lost a…
Read MoreA BURIED TREASURE, A NEW ADVENTURE
He almost went into the freebie pile. He stands 7 1/2 inches tall. I should say he measures that tall because he can’t stand on his own. His clothes are moth-eaten. His feet look too wide and big for his short legs. Yet there was something about him that intrigued me. Mind you, it took…
Read MoreQ&A: Randy Poe on Stalking the Red Headed Stranger
Randy Poe is a Grammy-nominated record producer who has also produced, compiled, and/or written the liner notes for more than 100 albums. He’s won many awards and authored Squeeze My Lemon: A Collection of Classic Blues Lyrics and Skydog: The Duane Allman Story. Since 1985, he’s been president of the highly successful Leiber and Stoller…
Read MoreSURPRISE!
If you’ve ever been invited to a surprise party you know the stress of having to get there by a certain time. If you’ve ever hosted a surprise party you’ve done plenty of nail-biting worrying if guests will arrive before the guest of honor and keep their mouths shut. Plus there’s the danger the ruse…
Read MoreFADED PHOTOGRAPHS
In going through another purge/organization of my home, I found this photo. I have no idea who this woman is. I do know the photo was taken in Kansas City, Missouri, around 1900. I’ve seen her face in a few other pictures but there’s nothing written on the back to identify her. Look at that hat!…
Read MoreMY FUR CHILD
This is the photo I see every time I turn on my computer: my beloved, darling Tucker. We found each other in December 2006 at the Guilford County (NC) Animal Shelter. Sometimes when he meows he sounds like a pigeon and when he snores it’s like an elf wheezing. He rarely conks out on my…
Read MoreHOLIDAY REMINISCENCES AND REGRETS
An adapted excerpt from the chapter “Watching a Photograph Slowly Fade” from When I Married My Mother “Are we putting up a Christmas tree this year?” Mama Jo asked when our third Thanksgiving as roommates rolled around. I groaned and was sorry I did. The first year we lived together, after uncovering the ornaments of…
Read MoreMy Spinal Fusion Saga (with a happy ending).
After viewing an MRI of my lower back, I prayed New York neurosurgeon Dr. Ezriel Kornel wouldn’t utter the dreaded word “surgery.” He said, “You have a cyst in the ligaments around your L4 that has to come out.” I visualized a laparoscopic number with a tiny scar and I’d be back home the same…
Read MoreBETWEEN THE COVERS WITH JOHN WATERS
I’ve just finished John Water’s latest funhouse of memories and musings, Role Models. There’s a spray of pink slips of paper sprouting from the top of it now – markers of captivating passages. I know, I know. With an e-reader you can highlight, search for keywords and deodorize a room at the same time. I’d…
Read MoreMY FANTASY FINAL ROSE
Summer 2011 As another Bachelorette nears its “most dramatic final rose ceremony ever” I find myself thinking back to the Bachelor debut in 2002. Twenty-five beautiful young women vied for the heart of one alpha male. Many weeks later, he whittled it down to one. Kind of like a harem in reverse. I was horrified. I couldn’t…
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