My son will have his bar mitzvah without his grandfather. Because my cousin's children will never know the brilliant, funny person that was their grandmother, my aunt. Because I never knew my own paternal grandmother. Because the husband and friends Angela left behind still love her. Because I can't ask my mentor Lewis any more questions ( Read more... )

Miep Gies, the woman who found Anne Frank's diary and saved it, has died at age 100. She was in her early thirties when the Nazis first came to Holland. Her employer, Otto Frank, had moved his family to Amsterdam to escape the increasing virulence of the Nazi regime in their native Germany. When the Nazis came to the place the Franks had hoped ( Read more... )

We always spend Christmas with my in-laws, because it matters to them (if only as a day to gather family), and not in the least to my mom. My mother-in-law has been having increasing difficulty getting around, but a holiday should be marked by a special dinner. She'd bought a huge turkey for the purpose. Why she got a 20 pound bird for 5 people ( Read more... )

May you have the happiest of birthdays and a year of dreams come to fruition.

The bard warms the hearts
Of those privileged to hear
In December's cold.

I just sent this off to one of my senators (the Democrat) via e-mail. Belle, I know you and those you work with do the very best you can, and honor and respect you for it. Unfortunately, the logic still holds.

I have been reading that the "public option" is likely to be dropped from the health insurance bill being currently debated. However, ( Read more... )

Okay, not exactly my usual sort of post. On the other hand, I know some of my friends are involved in canine rescue, and as with many things, the further the word spreads, the more likely it is to actually do some good. This is copied verbatim from a friend's FB post.

11-20-2009: Dairyland Greyhound Racetrack in Kenosha, WI will be closing on ( Read more... )

Before it was renamed and repurposed, this was Armistice Day. It was the day when all the carnage of WWI came to an official end, set aside originally to remind us all of the cost and horror of war, so that those fields would never again be fertilized by human blood and sacrifice ( Read more... )

Part of my son’s homework today was to illustrate the phrase “catch a bus”.

He drew a figure leaning back against a taut rope, the other end of which was tied to a bus. I’d heard of calf-roping, but bus-roping?

And then he wondered why I laughed so hard.

I am not certain of the exact sequence of events. I know a cat was either involved or witness, because she came running out of the bathroom at a rate normally reserved for flight from cat-eating monsters such as vacuum cleaners and repair people. Seeing her mad dash, and hearing strange sounds continuing to emanate from the bathroom, I went to ( Read more... )

Our calico cat, Miss Cloud, is always trying to get Outside. She wants to explore the Land of New Smells. So today I decided to try and accommodate her, with some human control of the process ( Read more... )