In recent years, the bird population has exploded around our house. Each morning, we awaken to a dawn chorus, featuring a soloist who chirps the following hackneyed song: “Birdie, birdie, tweet tweet tweet tweet.” Every since Chris pointed out those lyrics, it’s all I can hear. Then there’s the Belushi Bird. It sings “cheeburger, cheeburger,” like [...]
You know you’re in Philadelphia if you hear the words “down the shore.” We were lucky enough to be invited to the Jersey shore over Memorial Day weekend, a tradition of several years standing, thanks to our generous friends Linda and Kevin. Perhaps because I failed to even pack a swimming suit, the water this [...]
Today’s headline may draw a host of new readers, for all the wrong reasons. This post isn’t about Vargas girls of days gone by. It’s about finding old stuff – at yard sales, thrift shops, auctions, on the curb – and being thrilled with your new possession. MOB reader Anne H tipped me off to [...]
Yesterday Hugh walked home from school and was disappointed to find that I was the only one in the house. He had found a turtle in the neighbor’s yard and wanted to show it off. He described it as “pulsing” in his hands, which I found ”repulsing.” But thank heavens I had the presence of mind [...]
Yesterday I was reading the Complaint Box feature in the New York Times online. The writer was griping about how common it has become for salesclerks and receptionists to rhetorically ask “How ya doin” without expecting or desiring any answer. She found the inquiry false. This generated a flurry of comments, which quite often raises [...]
Browsing around through the blogosphere, it becomes clear that safety and security are top of mind with many writers. Many so-called Mommy Bloggers, especially those with young children, refer to their kids by aliases. They often photograph their children from the back, or with their heads cut off. No doubt they have read cautionary tales [...]
Perhaps a year ago, I first heard a strange new expression: “Yes, my daughter is going to get to walk at graduation, even though she won’t technically have all her credits.” Wait, what? Walk? Ever since then, the “walk at graduation” phrase – or even just “walk” – has been raining down on my [...]
“Stash” means different things to different people. To my mother, a stash was her collection of quilting fabric, neatly sorted and stored in colored plastic boxes. To certain burned-out people in college, a stash was their collection of buds and leaves, carefully divided out on an open double-album. To a squirrel, a stash is a [...]
One of my mom’s favorite expressions was to say that someone “lies like a rug.” One of our old babysitters used to say to my boys, “The one thing I will NOT tolerate is for you to tell a lie.” She would prod them with “Are you FIBBING to me?” Whenever I overheard something [...]
Mother’s Day dawned bright and sunny, but cold. How chilly was it? For once I didn’t have to say to my children, “Put on a sweater, I’m cold.” In solidarity with me, they also donned extra layers yesterday. And I’m pretty sure it was truly for their own comfort as well. Ian and Hugh [...]
