They say the pen is mightier than the sword; but is the keyboard mightier than the basketball? I do not deceive myself: I know it isn’t. Still, I will employ this slight means, and I will say what I want to say. I acknowledge (how can I not?) that the UNC Tarheels defeated the Duke […]

I never get tired of this city. I’ve had the same view possibly hundreds of times: coming through the Fort Pitt tunnel and suddenly there is the city, above, below, around you. She is shockingly beautiful, Pittsburgh is. And she is a real city, without pretension. Honest if not (Go Steelers) humble. You don’t have […]

I did not have time for company. After all, we are leaving before dawn tomorrow morning. I had to pack for the children to stay at their grandparents; I had to pack for myself to go where I might not be able to do laundry; I had to clean my house (because, really, who wants […]

Here I sit, as I have uncounted times in the last five years, ready to begin writing. I have a paper due, you see, tomorrow night at 6:15. The notecards are at the ready, the text itself sits nearby. Various outlines and efforts at coherence drift under and around the notecards. The introduction and thesis […]

First, let me just say that I like the winter Olympics Vastly Better than the summer. Skiing is just So Cool– especially that aerial stuff they do. Really Really Amazing. I like that, for about two weeks, there is something worth watching on television. That said, I Can’t Believe that American Idol got better ratings, […]

Today I watch Emma Grace through the slats of the window blinds. She is outside in her red turtleneck and new pants, a red bow in her hair, wearing her Nana’s bright pink lipstick and her own red sparkly shoes. She is navigating the possibilities of her new jump-rope, knots tied five inches from the […]

I am now at an extraordinary time of life. A peculiar time. A sometimes difficult time. A time that I will miss. Because these days, without notice, I am as likely as not to find an acorn rolling around in the empty drum of the dryer. Sometimes I find two acorns, or one without a […]

At the end of a day like today, I pretty much have to realize that the only thing for it is to go to bed. I might think I want to do a little reading. I might pretend to want to do a little ironing (the pile grows). I might actually want to take a […]