February 25, 2026

I am really throwing a lot at you here today. Read this in bits and pieces as convenient. Three essays plus commentary on Cuba’s current situation? Who has time for this! But here it all is, in honor of a frigid February escape some years back, and a country that’s still stuck in my heart, […]

February 13, 2026

Full disclosure, this is an old essay that I’ve trotted out for several Arizona Statehood Days. That is, Valentine’s Day. They’re the same. Arizona became a state on February 14, 1912, having suffered some delays in attaining entry to the union because its state constitution was just a titch too progressive. Arizonans were distrustful of […]

February 7, 2026

Honestly it’s hard to get through the days these days, listening to the news and watching the astonishing video that regular folks have been capturing for months now but which seems to get worse and more violent with each passing day. But even saying you have a problem with masked, unidentified men in camo with […]

April 8, 2025

If you’re ready to start planning your Easter menu, I’m here to help! These cinnamon rolls are perfection at an Easter brunch. And the rizogalo, or rice pudding, that follows is a happy uncomplicated ending to an Easter dinner when you’re totally exhausted and need pure comfort. Whole Wheat Caramel RollsDon’t let the name fool […]

April 2, 2025

March, as I’ve written about previously, is a challenging month in Chicago, for me. It’s too much brown and gray and withered, and too little evidence that there will ever be green again. That branches will ever be anything but dead sticks. That vines will ever be verdant again. March taunts, sneering at me to […]

February 19, 2025

Maybe it’s the convergence of Valentine’s Day and President’s Day. I’ve been thinking about why I love this country. Having written about the ways it irritates me for the past 15 years, I felt like stepping out of my comfort zone, just this once, and writing about what I love. Here are a few things […]

February 10, 2025

Dogs are among the wholesome distractions in our lives. Other natural, rational objects of our attention include our children, jobs, and homes, and for a lucky few with well developed executive function, actual beautiful hobbies like weaving or playing an instrument. Cars with knocking engines and muddy paw prints on back seats, trying to take […]

February 4, 2025

Had I known that getting two dogs was going to prove so diverting that I would fail to write anything at all for ten months I might have had second thoughts. It didn’t happen all at once, as situations with dogs usually don’t. It takes time and several slow missteps to reach peak nonsense. After […]

April 15, 2024

I came to Orthodoxy as an adult, and I will always feel a little like someone peering into windows; maybe I’m on the patio, but not quite inside the building. On the plus side for me, Orthodoxy will always be endlessly fascinating–something not everyone born into this tradition can say. To me it is a […]

August 16, 2023

Summer is somehow almost over and I have a story to tell you from the spring. In early May our daughter, home from college, was digging out our old raised herb box, which in a former life was her old sandbox, in order to flatten out the space and turn it into a new area […]

April 29, 2023

First things first.  You need to see the wild growth of the formerly dead decorative sticks. I’ve got 5 or 6 curly willows growing with the will of weeds in my backyard pots. A friend of mine who has had this happen to her before has told me I should leave them in place for […]

April 18, 2023

Ever retro, I am starting a new blog. I plan to post here weekly.

So welcome to this space–a place to read and share stories, recipes, whatnot. I’ve long written about public education but there is just so much more to think about…

Like, for instance, how terribly difficult the transition is from winter to spring. We just went through this in Chicago, and we’re not all the way there yet…