Essays

Dear Animal Lover,             You know who you are.  You’re one of those people who consider the animal you live with “a member of the family.” You sometimes make a fool of yourself telling anecdotes about this animal to people who don’t quite get it. You cringe a little when someone refers to you as a “pet owner,” knowing full well that no one “owns” an animal.  If you aren’t an animal lover, there is ...
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Jane Fonda and Tomlin in 'Grace and Frankie.' (Photo: Netflix/Lionsgate) Dear Lily Tomlin and Jane Fonda, Congratulations, Lily and Jane! And thank you for setting in motion what I hope will be a new era of comedy. For the first time in my adult life, I’ve watched four seasons of a television series that portrays older women as engaging, funny, thoughtful, and, yes, sexy. Grace and Frankie is a new moment in the history of ...
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“I never go to national parks,” a young woman dressed in tight capris and climbing shoes said to her bearded friend. It was one of those overheard conversations at an airport. “They aren’t wild enough for me,” she explained and went on to associate our 58 national parks with bumper-to-bumper traffic, long lines for the bathroom, and goggle-eyed tourists with cameras. Thanks to this unknown woman, I’ve started a blog about my adventures in national ...
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Lately, I find myself thinking about Ida B. Wells (1862-1931). Wells comes to my mind every time someone mentions having “outrage fatigue” or declaring the latest political crisis, “outrageous.” In her diary, Wells doesn’t appear to get fatigue. A journalist and public speaker, she spent five decades voicing one of the greatest outrages in American history: the epidemic of lynching in the South that began during the 1890s. I think about her because she never ...
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Review of Everything I Never Told You. Celeste Ng. New York: Penguin, 2015 (297 pages) The first sentence of this novel is reminiscent of a murder mystery: “Lydia is dead.” However, the second sentence hints that the plot will revolve around something other than whodunit: “But they didn’t know this yet. 1977, May 3, six thirty in the morning, no one knows anything but this innocuous fact: Lydia is late for breakfast.” They, in this case, refer ...
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We were on our way to Mount Pisgah, when we chose the trail less traveled.  On Labor Day weekend, traveling uphill on Highway 276 from Brevard, all the trailheads were crowded. At the Blue Ridge Parkway, we took a right and in three miles came to the Pisgah Inn, also showing a full parking lot. A little further on the left is an Overlook, then in less than a mile the Mt. Pisgah Picnic Area ...
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In an early morning hour, I am recording a dream before it slips back into the night-time world. I sit at the dining room table, engrossed in a faint memory of a Caribbean couple who asked if they could design me a magical dress. I can no longer see their faces or remember what magical powers this garment might possess. The dining room table where I write starts to come into focus, as a final ...
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