As we leave our dens in this new post-pandemic era, I have found myself thinking about things like commuter rail. My last job was near a train stop, but in the great nation of America, car-free transportation is often inconvenient, if not impossible. It was almost impossible, so I didn’t use it for the last […]
Book #1: Pale Fire by Vladmir Nabokov
I first read Pale Fire the summer after my first semester of graduate school. I was staying in a grand residence near the Washington University music school and alumni house, house sitting for a math professor on sabbatical. The home was exquisite, despite some wear and tear, with hand painted wallpaper in the dining room, […]
Song #1: Corner Pocket by Count Basie
In my first year of college, I learned a couple of things, some from my first boyfriend. Scott was a few years older than I was, a Californian who had an associate’s degree in accounting and a love for jazz, and did a little drumming himself. He also had picked up a camera one day […]
Movie 1: Les Enfants du paradis
Sure, Julie, start with a French movie. My daughter distinctly told me not to do this, and I am distinctly deciding to ignore her. The first time I saw Les Enfants du paradis, I had recently returned from a year abroad in France. The year itself had its ups and downs, but in the end, […]
One hundred
Two nights ago, my daughter asked me about my favorite movies. There are so many I like that I couldn’t narrow it down. Same with songs, and books. After some hemming and hawing, I could think up an answer, but wouldn’t it be nice to be able to name these things? I haven’t tried to […]
unraveling
I have been cleaning out my house. I’m not going anywhere, as far as I know, but the accumulation of years has been an source of frustration. You see, I am not fond of tidying up. I make messes, and I do my best to deal with the immediate things, after cooking, for example. I […]
my piano
When I was very young, I had a strange obsession with the piano. We didn’t have one when this all started, probably when I was four or five years old, but every time we visited a friend with one, I liked to sit at the long bench and stretch my fingers across the keys. I […]
kinder, gentler
The night before last, I found myself on the edge of a field at dusk, watching the spectacle of the male American woodcock. During mating season, he sits near the trees and makes a funny beeping sort of noise, then spirals high into the air before descending as he chirps. I had never seen this […]
i could really use a wish right now
Headed off to bed, I was in my pajamas when I saw the news: the Perseid meteor showers were happening at that very moment! I had known for days, partly from habit of looking for these particular meteors every year, and partly from the EarthSky News. I don’t always read the news carefully, I admit, […]
coming home
I have been away again, this time on my first trip to England. A great friend, whom I met while writing for an earlier blog, invited me to celebrate his and his wife’s birthday by visiting the famed Wild Hare Club in Hereford. The club is not, as the name might imply, an actual physical […]
