Election season has begun. Though, 2013 is not a national, state or even a mid-term election year. The lawn signs are fewer and the “intensity” of the public discourse is lower (unless you count debt-ceilings and affordable healthcare…but that’s a whole other topic). But election season – beginning with the primaries in early September and …
Storytelling
Summer Classics: Trash vs. Treasure
Another street sale is in the books. Yard sales, garage sales and street sales are a true summer classic. We have all set up first apartments with garage sale finds, or found some treasure we’re sure will be a hit on the Antiques Road Show. This year, we learned from a customer, whose mother was …
Encore: 19 Items Per Minute, or, How bagging groceries instructs my life
This post was originally published in April 2011, and, according to my WordPress statistics, is my #2 post of all time. 19 Items Per Minute is about my seven years working at a local grocery store chain. It was the only job I had all through high school and college (with the exception of a …
Encore: 19 Items Per Minute, or, How bagging groceries instructs my lifeRead More
Make them want your Retsyn*
One of my first core classes as a college freshman was Critical and Analytical Thinking. On the first day, our assigned homework included watching television (I could not believe my good luck) – specifically, to pay close attention to commercials. Our class discussion centered around what I later understood as “marketing,” and how we are …
Patience and Publication
A year ago this month, my article about Betty Murphy sewing quilts for a unique place on Raquette Lake was published in the Suburban News. The unique place, St. William’s on Long Point, is both an historic site and a soul-replenishing respite nearly in the center of Adirondack Park. The editor encouraged me to pitch …
Tough Love
A few years ago when I went to Boston to visit one of my oldest and craziest (and best) college friends, I came off the plane wearing my usual traveling headgear – a Yankees ball cap. My friend, knowing that I’m not a rabid fan, just a lifetime resident of New York State, raised an …
It’s Never Enough
Last week I wrote about our sweet, easygoing dog. Well, we also have a cat. When Elsa was five weeks old, I picked her out of a feral litter born just outside the door of the rural office where I worked. Mama Cat had already produced a couple of litters with the resident playboy, Bobby …
Adventures in Babysitting: Winter Break
There I was again, driving to my sister’s house hours before dawn. It’s President’s Day and I have Aunt duty with nephews K. & D. My brother-in-law and I do the whispered baton-pass in the dark kitchen – he heading out to work, I heading straight to their living room recliner. After fumbling with their …
