I discovered James Russell Lowell’s “A Good Word for Winter” a couple of weeks ago—to my utter delight. I could probably quote from it for hours. For now, though, on this Winter Solstice, I’ll simply give you the meat of his argument: “I am going to ask you presently to take potluck with me at a board where Winter shall […]
The Melancholy Ones
Each year, I grow a little bit more convinced that I’m not alone—that there are others, many others, I think, who prefer the melancholy Christmas songs over the rambunctiously joyful ones. My completely non-scientific research has led me to this conclusion. For what other reason would there be eleven different renditions of “O Come, O Come Emmanuel” in my Christmas […]
The Quaker Maple
I’ve got an app on my phone called Timehop. Every day it gives me a catalog of all of my social media posts on this day in previous years. I shall begin by saying with pride that I have not yet used it to find fodder for this month’s blog posts. I shall then break my victorious streak and tell […]
The Night Cary Grant Hooted
Photo courtesy of Dr. Macro’s High Quality Movie Scans It started with Cary Grant screaming. Well, maybe you’d call it more of a hoot. “Squeal” is too high, “scream” too sharp. It’s this startled “whoooo!” sound that’s rather difficult to describe. It was 2006. The Olympics were in Torino and I was in Alaska. It was February, one of our […]
Stopping by the Woods: A Review of A Year in Weetamoo Woods
I’ve never written a poetry review before, so perhaps I’m doing this all wrong. Perhaps I should talk of meter and rhyme, cadence and word choice. But I’m not going to do that. I shall leave such things to those better versed in the criticism of poetry. Instead, I shall approach these verses as a reader. For, though I’ve studied […]
When Your Tuque Falls in the Curry
The full title of this piece—which, sadly, wouldn’t fit very well—is: When Your Tuque Falls in the Curry: And Other Problems of Using Your Laundry as an Outdoor Fridge -The Annals of a Philly Winter- Our laundry facilities are in a lean-to by the side of the kitchen that doubles as an entryway to the apartment. It is completely un-insulated […]
Bright Morning
At a biblical university, even the geese walk on water. It made me laugh, which was a delight on this bright morning. My sister wrote about comic relief yesterday, at the end of the surgery. She likened the moment to the steam coming off a pressure cooker – laughter. And this morning, in the bright sunshine, I gloried in the […]
Not Quite Winter Yet
I sometimes have a hard time believing that winter will really come here, to Philadelphia. Already, the sticky heat of summer has pushed the memory of snow piles up to my elbows deep into the recesses of my mind – I have to force myself to realize that I made those snow piles less than a year ago. A reliable […]