Wednesday Missives

Superbowl perspective

The Superbowl is over for another year. People are happy or sad about the outcome, based on their life-long affinity for one team or another, or sometimes based more on whim. If someone won last year, that team is sort of automatically served up as the Goliath that...
Day 2. The excitement builds.

Day 2. The excitement builds.

That might be slightly overstating it, but at least I'm keeping busy: Talking and texting to familyWorking on three different work contractsDoing an exercise class in the morning (just jumping around, TBH)Preparing healthy stuff to eat (alongside the junk food which...

Going viral

Going viral

Day One. The confinement begins. I find myself oddly... calm. Is this the storied one that comes before the storm? Anxiety is weird. I am a worrier, with more than my share of scary stories pinging around in my head at a given moment. It's like a creepy carnival...

It’s the Holidays!

It’s the Holidays!

Well, it was the holidays - I am just a teeny bit late. Our holiday began with the ugliest cinnamon bread ever. I brought Special Ingredients and Arcane Baking Equipment from the U.S. with the express goal of making these pretty little cinnamon bread cakey things in...

Fiction: it’s a dead heat

Fiction: it’s a dead heat

You've seen my non-fiction reviews, now it's time for some fic-fic-fiction! Reading waaaaay too much this year: check out these heinous reading glasses! Probably from reading on screens. Anyway... High points Two books are in the running for my "Book of the Year So...

Visit to Tunis!

Visit to Tunis!

A heartily documented trip to some of the most beautiful sites in and around Tunis, the capital of Tunisia. Not to be missed!

Reading myself into something new

Reading myself into something new

Five brief book reviews from among some non-fiction I’ve read in 2019. In honor of my dad’s great book reviews and of the bliss of reading yourself into new worlds.

Notional zebras and the big red bus: stories from an evaluation

Notional zebras and the big red bus: stories from an evaluation

Kilimanjaro from the air Two months in Nairobi, though it seemed like more. It's bad form to say so... but driving around Nairobi never put anyone in a good mood. Mostly it puts you at a standstill. And how come I was always on the side of the car with the hot sun...