Unlike the disaster averted in yesterday’s plane crash into the Hudson, a horrible disaster occured in New York’s other river back in 1904. It was so awful nobody thought it would ever be forgotten. And yet how many of us have heard of the steamboat General Slocum? Hands? Nobody? Exactly. I certainly hadn’t, until I [...]
Specifically, how to get them to agree to darken the door of a thrift shop, my favorite kind of store. Certainly my three sons have no desire to tag along while I poke through piles of vintage linens and pick through stacks of old books. To get them to shop, you must appeal to their primeval instincts. FInd a [...]
In recent comments on MOB, my college friend Sarah, born and bred in Ohio, explained why she has lived in Massachusetts ever since we graduated. She pondered what her life would’ve been like had she at least tried living in New York City, the epicenter of the advertising world…but her best apartment opportunity was in Boston. And she [...]
Apropos of nothing, today’s post is of little relevance except if you’re a mother of brothers, sisters, or any sibling combination, your tummy is probably not as flat as it once was. And so I bring you musings on….girdles. These thoughts were prompted by a recent library basement purchase: a 1939 French magazine featuring this fabulous ad. While [...]
It’s easy to forget, staying at home in one’s comfy routine, how much fun it is to get away and be with people you love in a different place. Dread of packing, closing up the house, trudging barefoot through airport security, renting a car, sleeping in a bed not my own – without my own perfect [...]
January – a blank page. Surrounded by oceans of sparkling white snow, under blue blue skies by day and billions of stars by night, this new beginning in the Rockies feels mythic. Everyone slept until nearly noon today. We took our time having lunch, lounging in PJs to chat or play games. Pente, Operation, Apples [...]
After a crazy travel day involving a 5:30 AM flight to Houston, a mad rush to the next plane to New Mexico, a car rental in Albuquerque, and a long drive through the Navajo Nation and over the border into Colorado, we have arrived in Durango. As advertised, it’s very snowy and mountainous. Tom [...]
My dad and brother Jim have gone back to Missouri. They’re great guests and we miss them, but that doesn’t mean the numbers are any more balanced in this household. In fact, because Hugh is having a sleepover, the male to female ratio was 8:1 last night and this morning. Here’s what our entry hall looked like in the aftermath of [...]
On Christmas Eve, my sons made cookies, my brother Jim made apple pie, and my dad made two pumpkin pies. They even make the crust from scratch. Chris and Ian, who are also frequently found in the kitchen, were off doing something else. For a week, I am truly outnumbered in this house by a [...]
My father receives a Christmas letter every December from an elderly English couple he and my mom met back in the 1960s. Written entirely without irony, every missive mentions not only the exciting events, but also the major maladies and trivial calamities of the previous year. The tone reminds me of the doleful Eeyore, who was also English, before [...]
