Category Archives: Uncategorized

Listen to a podcast of Jan reading this here. On a gorgeous Friday afternoon, as Mary-Mary-not-at-all-contrary began Day 2 of muralizing my 100-year-old garage, I stood at the threshold of the back door, open to the sun, so I could … Continue reading →

Since she was our graphic designer at the Express in the days when the students put out an actual, hold-in-your-hands newspaper, Mary Sand has amazed me with her patience and skill. It’s not easy dealing with a bunch of student … Continue reading →

Listen to Jan read this poem here. And so you sit in the chair to which you have been guidedby the white-cloaked angel, your own pew among manysprinkled around this cathedral of inoculation,filled with other souls like you, each tended … Continue reading →

Six days a week, between about 1 and 4 p.m., I head to my city’s oldest college campus that has taught students for going on 105 years, now quiet, seemingly abandoned. It’s not, of course, though nowadays students and teachers … Continue reading →

Two years ago today Dick Schmidt felt dizzy and collapsed as we stood in line in Honolulu to board a plane home after our annual winter trip to Hawaii. Without warning, he died in that moment. But two men immediately … Continue reading →

For Dani, whose help this year has made all the difference On the last day of the no-good-very-bad yearwe get to work. You come to my house—a near-weekly stint for the past ninemonths—take stock of the living room,the boxes, empty … Continue reading →

Never have we neededto hear it more as Mary, terrified, must havereceived the angel’s tidings. Or the same words deliveredto others whose faith was slipping or perhaps had vanished entirely—how did it sound to them? In these days of trial … Continue reading →

All is calm; all is brightat the North Pole,where Santa,it has been reported,is immune to the virusand ready for takeoff. The big man and elfin teamare working in earnest,getting ready to load the sleigh,hitch up the reindeerand make their worldly … Continue reading →

81-year-old William Shakespeare was the second person to get the firstCOVID vaccines at University Hospital in Coventry, England, Dec. 8, 2020. In the winter of our discontent‘tis not a dagger I see before me but a needleto begin the Taming … Continue reading →

SereeeeenaI just met a cat named SerenaAnd suddenly the namewill never be the same to me. I’ve known more than a few kitties in my life, falling hard for them as a kid when my family acquired our first sweet … Continue reading →