March 20, 2025

A Tomb for Tommy

Last month, little orange Tommy the canary began wheezing. Tears filled my eyes as I watched him tumble from his perch only to flutter up and fall again.

Family, Mortality, Pets

December 10, 2021

Tom Haines Jay Walks Again

I have reluctantly placed Tom at 305 West End Assisted Living on the locked 6th floor.

Alzheimer's, Family, Inequality

December 8, 2021

Review of: These Walls Between Us: A Memoir of Friendship Across Race and Class, by Wendy Sanford

I picked up the new book of my college classmate, Wendy Sanford, and immediately found myself plunged into some of the contradictions of my own life. Like me, Wendy came from a wealthy family totally, obliviously, dependent on the “help.” Like me, she grew from taking that arrangement for granted,

Family, Inequality, Racism

March 28, 2017

The 7 Secrets of the Prolific

If you’re like me, you always wanted to be a writer—but obligations came first: family, friends, bosses, students, bills, good causes. Recently, I grumbled about my lack of productivity to my editor Chris Sturr at Dollars & Sense magazine. He sent me The 7 Secrets of the Prolific: The Definitive

Cuba, Family, Inequality

September 4, 2016

David and Goliath, or Why the One Percent Has to Rig the System

Malcolm Gladwell’s bestseller, David and Goliath, asks how and why the weak win far more often than we expect. What characteristics of the weak can sometimes make them strong? What characteristics of the powerful can often make them vulnerable? For a long-time inequality buff like me, Gladwell provides some new

Family, Gladwell, Inequality

April 19, 2012

Pearidge, Trauma ; 99 to 1; and The Self-Made Myth

My brother and I turn, and there is my husband Tom, crumpled in the gutter, a pool of blood spreading under his head. Call 911! In five minutes, there are – count them – three police cars, two fire engines, and a passing Good Samaritan doctor.