Growing Old, Gracefully.

My psychologist daughter told me about a secret trick she employs. Each time she meets a new acquaintance, she immediately looks for one thing, no matter how small, she can appreciate before she may get influenced by any negative observations. Why not give this one a shot, I …

My old friend Mark Twain showed up again last night at the foot of my bed. I don’t mind. He can be witty at times. But not this time. Mark was all lathered up about author Percival Everett stealing the story of “Adventures of Huckleberry Finn” to publish his own …

Billy Bragg was our long-haired black German Shepherd alpha dog for quite stretch over a decade ago. He was best known for gently biting the noses of humans he loved most. At times, when he was overly rambunctious, my nose resembled a ripe tomato. We had several crews of …

I just got over several weeks of not feeling chipper: no energy, frequent visits to my bathroom, lots of sneezing and blowing my nose, no appetite (not even for chocolate ice cream), being sleepy and sleepless at the same time (did I mention the frequent trips to my …

What strong utterance did your mom blurt out at you when you weren’t being the perfect child she had dreamed of raising? (Come on now, your mother must have lost it every now and then.) My mother, Irene, valued gumption over any other positive trait. Just sitting or standing …