Ways to Entertain a 3-Year-Old

A guide for grandparents and other adults Blow dandelions Adults look at a lawn of seeding dandelions and see weeds about to spread. A three-year-old is delighted by picking a bouquet of yellow flowers. You pick a round-seeded head of … Read More

Right, Wrong, and Prophetic: Angela Davis

Dr. Davis was on Time’s 2020 List of Most Influential People In 2020, Angela Davis was included on Time’s list of the 100 most influential people in the world. That is 2020, when the list includes Kamala Harris and Joe Biden and other contemporary figures … Read More

I am a 1957 Chevy

Let me count the ways a classic Chevy is superior I bought a 2022 Honda recently because of all the safety features: backup camera, lane drift warning, blue-tooth enabled radio/sound system/map finding. It gets good mileage and should last a … Read More

Great Writer of Fear, Shirley Jackson

Psychobiography, haunting, and women’s mags The best opening paragraph in writing is often agreed to be from Shirley Jackson’s We Have Always Lived in the Castle: “”My name is Mary Katherine Blackwood. I am eighteen years old, and I live with my sister … Read More

Don’t Get Admitted to the Hospital

Unless you need critical care, opt for hospital-at-home The Great Human Flood, I thought, as I leaned back in the chair of the emergency department waiting room. I probably looked like them — disheveled, dressed in sweats or thrown-together clothes, … Read More

A Phone Call to Harry Belafonte

Belafonte funded the Civil Rights Movement The phone rang and my friend answered it. The call was from Harry Belafonte, and though my friend rarely interrupted our time together to take a phone call, Harry was an exception. My friend … Read More

Artificial Stupidity is Calling Me

When the machines take over It’s dinner time. I can tell, because my phone starts ringing incessantly. With wrong numbers from Door Dash. I figured out a month ago that Door Dash had listed my private cell phone number, mistakenly, … Read More

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