Author, Journalist, Pop Folklorist
I am trying to practice the art of gratitude. For obvious reasons, what with Thanksgiving around the corner, and also because I’ve been so devastated by the examples of hate that I keep hearing about from friends and reading about in the news. I am trying to practice gratitude for selfish reasons, to light a…
Read more about On Love Lost and Found—Counting My Blessings
Proust had his madeleines, the taste of which brought back multiple volumes of memories of his youth. Mamina, my grandmother-in-law, has Mother Soniat’s fudge. And she didn’t even need to taste it; just holding the recipe in her hand called up the sweet taste of her high school years, when she and her sister left…
Read more about Remembrances of Teachers Past: A Thanksgiving Thank-You Note
Last week was the first since the inception of this blog in which I didn’t post. I could make some excuses about being preoccupied by traveling with the baby, spending time with family, meeting some article deadlines. But the truth is I was too busy eating. It started when we arrived at my parents’ house…
There may be a job shortage of epic proportions going on, but as the holiday season slouches towards us, it’s clear that there’s no shortage of kin work. “Kin work” is the term anthropologists use to describe the “conception, maintenance, and ritual celebration of cross boundary kin ties”. I found that definition on the back…
