"Avert your eyes. I'm not here. You're not seeing this," I hollered at Paul, still in the shower, as I sat on the edge of the tub, lathering my legs from the travel-size can of Barbasol my daughter left here last Christmas. Starting with the right leg I continued, "This is on the same continuum …
Category: Society
Who Are You?
From my mother, I grew up with very specific ideas about who I am genetically. We were Irish, "Descended from Jonathan Kelly, who stowed away aboard the Mayflower to get here and practice his Catholic faith in freedom from the English swine who stole our language and religion." My mother had opinions on the English. …
Reason #863 Why I Hate Shopping
I won't be surprised if, on my way to the loo, one of the animals doesn't try to interest me in buying some slightly used plastic chew toys. Everywhere one goes to conduct some sort of business, there is an invitation to buy something, buy more. Some random samplings from my life: As I walked …
Wonder Women All Around
The first time I saw this in a parking lot, I was irrationally irritated. Seriously? I thought. Humpf! I waddled my fat pregnant ass from the back of beyond all through Christmas. Yeah, petulance is not my best side. I'm not proud. More rationally I thought: Since when do pregnant women need special parking? It's not …
Six Degrees of Immigration
The year I don't know, but in the early days of the 20th Century a young man from a small village outside Kiev boarded a ship in Frankfort, Germany, crossed the Atlantic and, passing through Ellis Island, an anonymous agent recorded him under the Anglicized name, Bernard Gross. He married a fellow immigrant, a girl from the old …
The Purpose-Driven Jogger
Waiting for the signal to exit my suburban neighborhood, I wasn't really looking forward to going out "among them English" as Paul and I quote to one another. I dislike shopping just anyway but Christmas shopping I loathe with frosting on it. However, yesterday as I stared into space at the light at Eldorado Parkway, someone jogged into …
Weekend Coffee Share: Election Edition
If we were having coffee, I tell you that looking back over my many years and several election cycles, I cannot remember one where my heart has been so heavy, about which I felt such dread, quadrupled on Friday when FBI Director Comey injected himself, once more against all policy and procedure, into the mess. …
(Be the) Candle
My daughter earned her degrees from the great University of Texas, Austin and one is a Bachelors in Women's and Gender Studies. I love our conversations, even when her clear-headed feminism dispels my own long and closely-held bullshit. Maybe especially when she dispels my culturally ingrained, but ultimately diminishing, bullshit. I was raised to expect praise, get …
Truth and Reconciliation
Three days after my 18th birthday, my father attempted suicide. His business had failed, he felt he had failed, and he waited until I was old enough to take charge of my, and my mother's, life. He did not succeed, thank God, but it was in the aftermath the real madness began. Unable to deal …
Rape Culture
My blood is boiling. Brock Turner, a young man with a promising future, assaults a young woman, is caught in the act, brought to trial, and is let off with a ridiculously lenient sentence because in the judge's, Aaron Persky's, assessment to render justice would have a "severe impact" on his future. This is Rape Culture giving a …
Southern Fried Californian 