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When I was in high school the last of my grandparents died. And then in my twenties so had all the step parents—a lot of divorce in my family. My maternal grandfather’s third wife had taken a fancy to me and her second husband was fond of Gary. I’ve written about this before. It’s how…
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I loved running. Loved it! I was never very fast, never did better than eight-something miles, never ran a marathon. But I ran the Hood to Coast several times, a bundle of 3ks, the Bridge Crossing, and a slow but official half-marathon in Portland nine years ago (2:17). Ten kilometers was my favorite distance and…
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Some books were entertaining but slid right off the dinner plate of my attention and a few I did not like. Here are two novels—though not the only two—I thought were wonderful. Olive, Again by Elizabeth Strout I loved Olive Kitteridge, but I loved this one more. Maybe that is because I am aging and Strout…
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[There’s a great link at the bottom—don’t miss it.] “Art never responds to the wish to make it democratic; it is not for everybody; it is only for those who are willing to undergo the effort needed to understand it.”—Flannery O’Connor, Mystery and Manners: Occasional Prose vs. For some, reading functions “as class performance, literature…
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We saw dozens of small shorebirds bathing in Asbury Creek this morning. They looked like smallish (largish robin-sized) but very fat pigeons. I stood and watched them while Gary moved quietly up to my side and gestured to his pocket where he carried the camera. A neighbor joined us. None of us knew what they…
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Early in the school year, I used to do vocabulary activities in my junior English classes. They required the use of hardcover dictionaries and most often teamwork. In each case the terms and their definitions were written into classroom journals which could be accessed during quizzes and exams. No need to write any of this…
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I made gibassier last evening. Fourteen brioche-rich rolls with both butter and olive oil and scented with orange flower water, anise seed, and candied orange peel that I made last winter. The previous night I made the preferment, and I completed the dough in the late morning, then two rises, and they baked in time…
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Tracking shows my package shipped via UPS from Wisconsin and has since traveled to Georgia, Illinois, and Massachusetts. In that order. I live in Oregon. A former student who delivered for UPS once tried to explain to me why such routes are efficient. I remain unconvinced.
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