Leaves

I looked out the window and saw Jon from across the street dragging a big trash barrel, some black trash bags, and a rake out of his garage. He’d had a heart attack last year shoveling his snow, and now here he was preparing to rake his leaves.
When I promised my friend Judy when she [...]

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The Next War

The bumper sticker said “I’m against the next war, too.” I don’t normally go in for bumper stickers, but that one seems worth pasting on my car.
There is a line of thought that says that when society was based on matriarchy, there were no wars. If we put mothers in positions of power, would [...]

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What fun!

A few days ago I wrote about seeing Alice Walker speak. I posted some photos here and at Flickr. Now my image is being used in the Wikipedia article about her.
She’s had such an influence on me. What fun to be part of what people learn about her when they read the article at Wikipedia.
In [...]

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Free

Back in the day, we used to say, “There’s no free lunch.” That was before Countrywide. Countrywide is a mortgage company that got itself into the current housing mess by granting adjustable rate loans to thousands of people who would not be able to make the payments when the “adjustable” part of the deal kicked [...]

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Tawanda

I wrote a post at BlogHer today that invokes the word “Tawanda” in support of Mona Shaw’s spree with a claw hammer in her local Comcast office. When Kathy Bates said, “Tawanda,” in Fried Green Tomatoes it was an iconic moment for a lot of women who were mad as hell and weren’t going to [...]

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The Sunday Paper

I love the Sunday paper. It demands leisure. It demands slowing down, sipping your coffee and taking your time. It’s a lovely experience to read all those articles, op ed pieces, book reviews, and just stuff.
The daily papers don’t feel the same. For one thing, you’re in a hurry. The paper is much smaller and [...]

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Riverwalk

The riverwalk by the Genesee River is spacious. It wanders among the odd, eclectic architecture of downtown Rochester. Old buildings with inset decorations of Greece columns, arches, and little motif pieces sit brick-by-glass next to sleek high rise odes to modernism.
Earlier buildings are topped by interesting statues and artistic works. The Kodak building down the [...]

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Apricot

Jessie brewed a cup of apricot tea. She sat crossed-legged on the worn sofa on the porch to drink it. She held the cup close to her nose and inhaled the wonderful fruity aroma of the tea. Calm down, she said to herself. Just drink this tea and pull yourself together.
Everything around her seemed more [...]

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Disgusting

Bobbi opened the door to the stairs and starting clattering down to the lobby from the 25th floor. The stair well was disgusting. Apparently the hotel never expected anyone to actually use it. The walls were filthy and flaking. The guard rails were pitted and black with grime.
It made Bobbi wonder what the kitchens looked [...]

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Frost

A comment got me to thinking about Robert Frost. Or plain old frost. This time of year I think about frost doing in my last tomatoes. I have a frost free tomato plan. It involves cutting off the plant right at the dirt line and bring the little darlings in to finish ripening on a [...]

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