Independence Day, 2018
My country, right or wrong. There’s a lot that’s right with it. There’s a lot that’s wrong with it. True patriots, I like to believe, are those who are willing to pitch in and make it better.
Crossing Lines
Donna visited a friend last night. Despite a mutual agreement to avoid politics, conversation turned to the administration policy of taking children from would-be immigrant parents crossing the southern border of the US. Her friend … not for the first time … came down hard on the racist MAGA side: it serves them right; the kids are being […]
Eighty Thousand Gnocchi in Three Key States
So far, it’s been a quiet Saturday morning. I have yet to replenish the bird feeders, but most of the outdoor chores are done and Mr. B has been walked. I feel I should update my blog and newsletter privacy policies and send every reader an email about it, but I’d have to write a privacy policy first […]
It’s All a Racket
Like most Americans, I was raised to believe my country was not corrupt. Of course it is and always has been, because human nature makes corruption inevitable. I’m thinking about corruption in light of news that a Korean aircraft manufacturer paid $150,000 to a shell company set up by Michael Cohen, Trump’s fixer. A huge […]
Friday Bag o’ Brimley
I’m not going to be coy: my blood sugar started inching up a few years ago; this year it crossed a line and my doctor says I now have type 2 diabetes. At my age I’m probably in for the duration. It’s totally on me, of course. I couldn’t feel guiltier if, after years of unprotected anal […]
Rites of Spring
Spring is here. You wouldn’t know it in the Northeast, but it’s lovely in the Southwest, and with our recent rain the Sonora Desert will soon be in bloom. In most parts of the country, students are out on spring break. In Tucson they’re out for the annual rodeo. For some, spring cleaning includes scrubbing up […]
Cold Dead Hands
From a New York Times op-ed titled “I Wanted to Be a Good Mom. So I Got a Gun“: A few months after my father left our family home for good, my mother heard me screaming in the middle of the night. It was the kind of scream that made her grab her rifle in […]
Tuesday Bag o’ Chorizo
One of Tucson’s attractions is its abundance of carnicerías, Mexican butcher shops, each with loyal customers who swear by their favorite shop’s hand-made chorizo. We buy our chorizo at Safeway, philistines that we are, but the brand they carry actually does come from a local carnicería, and that’s what we had for breakfast this morning, scrambled with eggs, flour tortillas […]