A Short Quiz

A short quiz for today–no Googling, please: How many of you non-football fans out there know why New England quarterback Tom Brady was in the news all summer? How many of you non-hockey fans out there know why Chicago forward Patrick Kane has been in the news since early August? One was accused of masterminded […]

Insensitivity

Years ago, when I lived here… …we received permission to throw a party. We sat down to plan and arrived at the only weekend date between Thanksgiving and Christmas that was available. That day turned out to be December 7, Pearl Harbor Day, which commemorates those who died in the Japanese attack in 1941. The […]

And Now…Deja Vu

Three (!) years ago, I wrote a piece here called The Second Week Blues, in which I chronicled how The Magpie had done great at school for the first week plus, then hit a bump. What I didn’t tell you is that there was more to the story. Yes, she had picked up a nasty […]

And Now We’re Empty

One week ago today we left home to take the Magpie to her penultimate semester at college (no telling if next year we’ll be taking her to grad school, but I seriously doubt it). This was an easy trip, as her campus is a little over an hour away, and easy also because by this […]

Droning On and On

When I was a kid, one of the coolest things anyone could get was a free-flying, radio controlled (RC) airplane. No one I knew had one, but I recall one of my friends was building a model airplane (one of those made out of a forest of balsa wood, covered in tissue paper) that he […]

Monday Musing, Full Nest Edition

Well, it’s been a while. When I posted last, I kind of thought I’d be back last week, but time and circumstance worked against me. It was rather low on my priority list during the week. The big news is we picked up the Magpie at JFK airport on 8/7. After almost a full year […]

The Inescapable Cellphone

Back at the beginning of May, I worked with a group of 9 girls from one of the local colleges, organizing a clean-up along the trail at a local state forest. It was part of an effort called “Into the Streets,” where teams of students go off and do community service projects throughout the area. […]

The Mockingbird Sings A Different Tune

Of all our feathered friends, the northern mockingbird has one of the greatest, most descriptive names ever: Mimus polyglottos. Rather than have some awkward Latinized name to memorialize the person who discovered it (see: Bachman’s warbler, Vermivora bachmanii), the mockingbird’s name pretty much sums up what the bird is all about: “Many-voiced mimic.” Here’s a […]

Carrie’s Query Critique

For those of you who may have a query in need of perusal, get thee to Carrie Pestritto’s blog for a chance to get critiqued by an agent (and the chance to get ‘the Carrie Treatment’ your first 100 pages!). Good luck!

It’s Invasive Species Awareness Week!

Yesterday marked the beginning of Invasive Species Awareness Week here in New York. The purpose of  this week is to promote awareness and understanding of invasive species and to help stop their spread. Invasive species are plants, animals or other organisms that can cause harm to the environment, the economy, and/or human health. They are […]