My parents were atheists. I am told I asked, at age 3, "Who is this God person, anyway?" after playing with Catholic neighbors. Mom remembers being so amused she was completely unable to answer. A few years later, I got a beautiful illustrated children's book about Greek mythology (Dad was an artist and Mom a children's librarian) for Christmas ( ( Read more... )

Proverbs 14:31 “Whoever oppresses a poor man insults his Maker, but he who is generous to the needy honors him ( Read more... )

Fifty years ago, back when teachers were allowed to actually teach and be creative as they did so, my Hawai'ian-born third-grade teacher had us put on a traditional Hawai'ian May Day pageant for our parents. She taught us songs, which she accompanied on her ukelele. All the kids learned the hula moves that went with the songs and we performed them ( Read more... )

Someone made this query on Facebook. I have an answer that, if you include the anecdotal data, trumps just about everyone. My mother's side of the family is descended from a long line of rabbis, who kept meticulous records for centuries. The family tree that my great-grandfather gave to my grandmother when she fled Germany went back to the 15th ( Read more... )

John Madigan is gone. He was my friend for decades, before he married another friend of decades, Candy Madigan. We used to have lunch together when we both worked downtown and the conversations ranged from the prosaic to the cosmic and beyond, never once the same even when we were talking about the same-old-same-old of our lives. He was--and is--a ( Read more... )

Merry Christmas! We opened presents at our house with Karl's mom. Lydia got an electric blanket, a Harry Potter afghan, and tickets to a show in New York. Karl got a Japanese bell and most of the equipment to build a hydroponic garden. I got earrings, a book about the founder of the Mutter Museum, and a new Bundt cake pan. Karl's mom got a bulb ( Read more... )

We had a quiet Christmas Eve at home, just the three of us. I was a bit down, thinking of Christmas Eves in days gone by, so Karl gave me an early gift: the solar system. The whole thing, in blown glass, by Joy Alyssa Day. That got me out of my funk! After dinner Karl and I watched "Joyeux Noel," a movie about the impromptu cease fires that ( Read more... )

A while back people were posting on FaceBook the ten books that had the most lasting effect on them. I never got tagged and I couldn't come up with a good list anyway. But now I have! So here it is, in roughly the order that I encountered the books ( Read more... )

Alan Seeger was killed in WWI. He was folksinger Pete Seeger's uncle and one of the first Americans to die in the war. There is a lovely wooded state park named after him in central Pennsylvania. The road to the park runs by my family's old place, Islandia, where a copy of this poem hangs ( Read more... )

Is there anyone else on my friends list who just doesn't "get" the whole superhero concept? I can suspend disbelief with the best of them for science fiction or other forms of fantasy, but accepting a bizarre superpower like Spider Man's or the Hulk's just isn't happening. It seems forced and childish and the teams of superheros seem even sillier. ( Read more... )