I’ve written two 9/11 entries. I can’t decide which one to post, so I’m posting both. They are very different from one another -each written while in two opposite moods. Because I’m human! Counterparts: September 11, 2001. It’s the 20th anniversary, and people seem to want to talk about it. That’s a change because, for…
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That picture of the northern lights is misleading. I didn’t actually see them on my Anchorage layover. In fact, I’ve never seen the northern lights. Not yet anyway. There are only a few hours of darkness during an Alaskan summer night. And hopefully, while laying over, I’ll be sleeping during those hours. However, at our…
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Do you have any long-term plans? Any daydreams you’ve been thinking about for a while? I bet you do. I do too. My dream goes back half my life. I want an apartment in my favorite city of New Orleans. I began looking at places there before my kids were born. And since they are…
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School is about to start -in person! And my son is going to be a senior. This year will be the last time I/we ….(fill in the blank). There will be a lot of lasts this year. He’s my youngest, and I’m already feeling a transition. And I don’t like it! But that’s another blog. …
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Tennessee Williams once said, “America has only three cities: New York, San Francisco, and New Orleans. Everywhere else is Cleveland.” Sorry, Cleveland (and Chicago), but I kind of agree. Having said that, there are a few other American cities that I love -like Boston and Philadelphia. Since I just wrote about my favorite cemeteries and…
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In 2020, I had planned a trip to Pompeii, which of course, never happened. But last Saturday, I caught a glimpse of this tragic city at the Legion of Honor. My brother invited me to the museum to see a very interesting exhibit: Last Supper in Pompeii -From the Table to the Grave. The exhibition…
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It’s 2021, and the Summer 2020 Olympics are about to begin… with no spectators. Like everything else in 2020, these Olympics will undoubtedly be historic and weird. Take the athletes’ beds in Olympic Village, for example. I saw these beds online in The Skimm. They reported, “The world’s best sports competitors are set to spend their nights…
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Initially, I intended to write about Alcatraz in my Bay Area series: In My Own Backyard. But I thought, “I can’t talk about Alcatraz and not mention Eastern State Penitentiary.” They’re like first cousins. Alcatraz, in San Francisco, and Eastern State Penitentiary (ESP), in Philadelphia, are two of America’s most historic and storied former prisons. They…
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I’m not sure what this says about me, but I love cemeteries. I don’t like new, tidy ones. Cemeteries with too many rules and uniformity don’t interest me. I prefer old, dilapidated cemeteries with overgrown landscaping and half-buried headstones. I like it when families or the passage of time has put their stamp on the…
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Happy 4th of July! Actually, it’s July 8, so Happy 8th of July. I hope everyone had a great holiday weekend. I am just back from Tahoe, where I was not only celebrating America’s birthday but also celebrating my daughter’s 21st birthday. Lake Tahoe is a 4-hour drive from the Bay Area and a favorite…
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