So here we are less than three weeks before Christmas, and I am still ordering on line. Not that I am giving a lot of gifts to people, since our family and friends have long since decided we don’t need any more stuff and don’t… Read More
So, here we are at Thanksgiving, a time when everyone is supposed to count their blessings around the dinner table. The attitude of the season is gratitude and, in truth, while the search for reasons to give thanks might be difficult when times are tough,… Read More
It’s what I have come to call “That time of year” again — the late fall days in November between holidays when daylight savings time ends and the twinkle of Christmas lights begin to illuminate the darkness. The year is winding down, the New Year… Read More
All Hallows’ Eve is an old-fashioned term for Halloween. You seldom hear it these days, perhaps only in old New England towns or in some isolated ethnic communities. It brings to mind ancient history, Puritan superstitions, Celtic mysticism — all the myths and legends and… Read More
Fall officially arrives this week, though you might be hard-pressed to know that in South Texas. Yes, some pumpkin patches are popping up and garlands of faux autumn leaves are for sale in Michael’s, but temperatures here this week will still be in… Read More
When you think of deserts, no doubt you picture the great exodus scene in The Ten Commandments when Moses (Charlton Heston) leads his people out from Egypt onto the wide sands of the Sahara. Certainly, the Sahara is the quintessential desert, the largest… Read More
Remember all the hype about multi-tasking back in the 1990s and early 2000s? I certainly do, because I was wearing multiple hats then: I was a writer, publishing articles and books and doing writing workshops; a college professor teaching undergrad and graduate courses; a… Read More
(Photo above of Leah Chase, philanthropist, chef and owner of the famous Dooky Chase Restaurant in New Orleans, joyfully cooking at age 95.) When I am an old woman I shall wear purple With a red hat which doesn’t… Read More
It was early September of 1961. I was just beginning my freshman year of high school, excited about being an upperclassman, and eager to pursue the academic classes and special extracurriculars that would pave my way to college and beyond. Already I had my sights… Read More
When I was a little kid, I spent a lot of time on our back porch. Our house, built by my grandfather in the late 1920s, was an early Craftsman style, high up on piers with five very large rooms inside, many tall, double-hung windows,… Read More
the narrative thread 