Something had changed at Blockbuster and it was not the annual rearrangement of shelves and their culling of the excellent in favor of the trite. I hurried. Taking advantage of my grise, if not eminence, I leaned toward the young... Continue reading

Mention of Jewish mothers on a recent post reminded me of a story so titled : They say that four Jewish mothers got together in heaven. As they couldn't leave well enough alone, the conversation was all about their sons.... Continue reading

The ubiquity of upscale cafes and beaneries in the urban landscape obscures the grudging awareness in America, over time, of a good cup of coffee. In an upbeat song from '69 that Carmen McRae later perfected, it was the just... Continue reading

My immediate reaction to Jesse's piece on the killings in Tucson was to write a story about cow dung. While Wikipedia doesn't acknowledge it, I could swear that my Wren & Martin grammar & composition textbook in high school listed... Continue reading

The intersection of writing, fame and commerce that was the coda of Sujatha's last post triggered a memory of a crônica by Russell Baker that was included as a post script in an anthology titled "The Historian as Detective -... Continue reading