October, 9, 2024
When I found myself recently, for reasons I could not fathom, in a “damp, drizzly November in my soul,” instead of taking to the sea, as Ishmael did in Moby Dick, I went with the man I call “Rio” to Valley View Hot Springs, in the great, wide and empty San Luis Valley of Colorado. At Valley View, warm water bubbles out of the ground, creating natural pools for soaking and reflecting. I’ve been going there for years, and each time I arrive, there’s the first shock of seeing men and woman entirely […]
Read MoreSeptember, 11, 2024
I posted this in 2008, but it popped up as I was cleaning my office this week, and it made my mouth water. Hope you enjoy. Last weekend, Joan Borysenko and I re-created a dish that her mother and my grandmother used to make. In our memories, it tasted like heaven, but we hadn’t eaten it in more than 30 years and were filled with nostalgic longing. Her mother in Boston called it a “veal pocket,” and my mother in Los Angeles called it “stuffed breast of veal.” The recipe had been carried […]
Read MoreJuly, 31, 2024
This is part 2 of a recent trip to Italy. To read part 1 click HERE. I had my first real heartbreak in Firenze (Florence) in 1962, before many of you were born. I was on a student tour of Europe—from Scandinavia down to Italy—and our guide in Firenze was a charming and playful guy in his early thirties, Giancarlo Massetti. In Firenze, where he lived, he took me and other young women from the tour to the San Marco Bar, where he and his friends would hang out and park their motorcycles […]
Read MoreJuly, 25, 2024
My son was always out in front, walking quickly, often holding the hands of his two girls, five and seven, who were trotting along beside him. His wife, Fay, was a few steps behind as we made our way through five Italian cities. And I was 5 or 6 steps behind her, walking as fast as I could, tapping my way with hiking poles and watching the ground to make sure I wouldn’t trip on bumpy sidewalks. It was the happiest, most delightful trip I’ve had in a long time: three weeks in […]
Read MoreJune, 26, 2024
This is part 2 about Student Protests in the ‘60’s and Now. To read Part 1, click here. The two key differences between student protests this year and in the 1960’s are: 1—We were at war then in Vietnam, and men could be drafted and killed, if not enrolled in classes. 2—Most students then did not encounter antisemitism. Many student leaders were Jewish and supported Israel, but today, many young Jews have little identification with Israel. Those who do support Israel have been threatened at Columbia, and many chose to move away from […]
Read MoreMay, 25, 2024
I was in New York last November when a dozen young women came marching down Broadway on the upper West Side, carrying flags with Arabic writing and banners, “Free Palestine!” They were laughing and singing, and I found the sight unpleasant. Earlier that day, in a nearby café, a longtime friend who’s a Rabbi told me, “This is the hardest time in my entire life as a Jew.” That seemed an exaggeration, but five months later, in April of this year, the Atlantic published an issue with the cover line: “The Golden Age […]
Read MoreMay, 2, 2024
Coming Soon… Shock of Recognition? Student Protests now versus those in the ’60’s Today: something different. First Road Trip with a Rock Band While cleaning up docs on my Mac, I came across the first article I wrote for a national magazine, Harper’s, in 1969. Yikes! That’s more than 50 years ago. I was married to a man in New York, who arranged for me to have a meeting with his friend, Bob Kotlowitz, who was managing editor of Harper’s magazine. This was the golden age of magazine journalism, and Harper’s was […]
Read MoreFebruary, 17, 2024
It was a shock: seeing him recently on the cover of the…. not the Rolling Stone, but the WSJ (Wall Street Journal magazine.) He still has that arrogant/elegant/nasty vibe, but his face! The skin is deeply wrinkled, not like the wrinkles most of us have, but thick, weather-beaten folds and ridges that start between his eyebrows and run all the way down his cheeks to his neck. He colors his hair, wears a bright lavender suit, and appears to have on lipstick, but those elephantine wrinkles! It’s possible to have them softened surgically, so I […]
Read MoreDecember, 16, 2023
For the past few years, when the first snow falls in Boulder, CO, where I live, I ask myself, Can I still ski? Do I still have the strength and stamina to lug the skis, boots and poles around? Do I have the confidence and balance to avoid falling, and if I do, can I get myself upright again? You may have a similar question, as the years trundle by. Can I still … stay up til 1 a.m., drive, color my hair, wear short-sleeve shirts, have great (or at least good) sex?
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