Category: Uncategorized

  • SUKKOT

    SUKKOT

    Yesterday, on the way to my workout at Marlene Meyerson JCC Manhattan, I exited the subway station and found a cluster of Orthodox Jews waiting at the top of the stairs. Three women and one man. Since, as the author Anita Diamant, noted, as a Union Reform Jew, they will always be considered my cousins.…

  • SAFETY IN NUMBERS 

    In my second year out of high school, I met a young man at a restaurant. My girlfriends advised me to meet him somewhere public on the first date. “Always park the car near the windows so you can see it,” my other friend advised me. He was there, seated in a booth, ordered the…

  • WE MOVED BACK TO NEW YORK CITY

    WE MOVED BACK TO NEW YORK CITY

    We missed it so much that we decided to move back to New York City.  My husband is excited to start his new teaching position.   Today we bought bagels at Zabar’s and the first time we left Sheldon alone in our apartment, but when we came back home, it was apparent from the position of…

  • PATIENCE

    PATIENCE

    My cab broadsided another cab in an intersection, and my face slammed into the plexiglas divider, my nose broke, and my mouth was severely cut on the coin cup. When the ambulence arrived, the police told my cab driver to hold my purse and stand over there. When I was extracted from the cab, he…

  • ELON FOREST

    ELON FOREST

    We live near Elon University and walk around Lake Mary Nell with Sheldon, our dog, several times a week. (Did you know that anyone in our community can fish in that lake, which is protected by the biology department? Feeding others is a #mitzvah.) This new initiative is excellent news and a top-tier #mitzvah: “The…

  • TEACHING POETRY

    TEACHING POETRY

    My students are SO bright!  They noticed and identified every subversive, poetic image in these lyrics by Sly & The Family Stone.   That’s why teaching poetry is so important. I hand out a packet of poems and lyrics, and my students have a full day or two to mark it up, circle, and underline whatever…

  • SELLING OUR HOME

    SELLING OUR HOME

    SELLING OUR HOME Everyone in our circle, including our neighbors, is aware that our home has been listed for sale multiple times, due to our past experiences with real estate agents.  Mostly, it’s been an enormous shock.  Two critical, ethical sins were made regularly. First, since no one else is in the room or can…

  • The $100 Startup by Chris Guillebeau

    The $100 Startup by Chris Guillebeau

    I’m re-reading this seminal book for the millionth time, a refresher course of what I have to offer.  My favorite quote? If you make your business about helping others, you‘ll always have plenty of work. –Chris Guillebeau My husband and I interviewed Chris when we lived in New York, and we found him passionate and…

  • WRITING WILL SAVE YOU

    WRITING WILL SAVE YOU

    Imagine my surprise when I attended a workshop billed as WRITER TO AGENT, with the promise that agents read your five page submission, but when the “Ask An Agent Anything” rolled around, one agent in particular told everyone that he preferred submissions that came from a referral, because that writer has put their entire faith in…

  • AXES AND MURDERERS

    The first time we lived in Manhattan, my husband and I made friends with an elderly gentleman who told everyone he was looking out for us. When we first moved to NYC, a friend of a friend told us we should meet Bennie and scribbled his telephone number on a card with his name. “Don’t…