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 … [Read more...]
A 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 … [Read more...]
Q&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 … [Read more...]
SURPRISE!
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 … [Read more...]
FADED 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 … [Read more...]
MY 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 … [Read more...]
HOLIDAY 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 … [Read more...]
My 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 … [Read more...]
BETWEEN 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, … [Read more...]
MY 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 … [Read more...]