Blog
What were they thinking?
I just received copies of my novel DAY AFTER NIGHT in Russian. I believe this is the first of my books translated into the language of Dostoyevsky. I wonder if the designers or editors even glanced at what’s inside because this image is so profoundly odd. Sure, the sky is ominous but four happy gals…
Read MoreFinishing the Hat
I’m close to finishing the book. I think so. No, really, I am. Maybe. It looks good. I don’t know. I think I can, I think I can. Somebody shoot me. Or get me some uppers. I had an anxiety dream a few nights ago. I was onstage in the final moments of a big…
Read MoreBoston: My Home Town. Sort of.
I have to admit that I felt a little bit like a wedding crasher at the inaugural ceremony for Mayor Marty Walsh on January 6. You see, I live in Newton, a city that only shares a border with Boston proper — and apparently, a small portion of Boston College. But I wanted to be…
Read MoreCall me Schnorrer
The Yiddish word, schnorrer has more than one meaning. It can be used to describe a habitual moocher, someone who never picks up the check, or a low-level jerk, a no-goodnik. However, the first definition in most dictionaries is “beggar.” There are all kinds of schnorrers: panhandlers on the street, the kid who knocks on…
Read MoreNelson Mandela
He was a big talker, the driver who drove my husband and me from the airport in Port Elizabeth, South Africa to an inland game reserve. He told us that he was originally from Zimbabwe but moved to South Africa many years prior when things got bad for whites under the Mugabe regime. We exchanged…
Read MoreThe words to say it
Thanks by W. S. Merwin Listen with the night falling we are saying thank you we are stopping on the bridges to bow from the railings we are running out of the glass rooms with our mouths full of food to look at the sky and say thank you we are standing by the water thanking…
Read MoreGobble Tov
Every autumn, as sure as the leaves change color, the Jews will be kvetching about the timing of our holidays: too early, with Rosh Hashanah, the New Year, hard on the heels of Labor Day; or too late, so that Yom Kippur — the Day of Atonement, when synagogues are packed to the rafters — coincides with…
Read MoreOctober 17th I was roasted. So I said …
On October 17, I was “Roasted and Toasted” by Mayyim Hayyim at joyful, silly fundraiser held at a nightclub called Guilt. (A roomful of Jewish mothers at Guilt? Can’t make that up.) It was one of the best nights of my life and there is no way I’ll ever thank everyone who worked and donated on behalf of…
Read MoreChildren and Art
Turning my kid into a theater nerd was not planned but probably inevitable. I remember Showboat, too, and the out–of-town gentleman who took such pleasure in Emilia’s delight. She walked out of the theater gob-smacked and hooked. My first non-work-related overnight away from my one-and-only child occurred in 1993 when Jim and I went to…
Read MoreLove that not-so-dirty Water
When I told people I was going swimming in the Charles, the response was either “Ewww,” or, “Can I come too?” When an email from Charles River Conservancy offered me the chance to take part in the first community swim in 50 years, I didn’t hesitate. I have been crazy in love with the Charles…
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