I just committed unnecessary travel during Covid. Interesting that the word “Covid” has become a noun in itself—one doesn’t need to add “era” or “pandemic” to it any more. It’s Covid and everyone knows what that means. An adjective or … Continue reading
I was rereading Benedetta Craveri‘s biography, Madame du Deffand and her World, and when I hit the chapter about her St. Joseph’s convent salon, the parallels between the eighteenth century French salons and the evolving blogosphere gave me this mental image of one … Continue reading
Up here in Massachusetts, we haven’t had much in the way of winter for the last couple of years. I mean we’ve had winter. There are days of below zero cold. The ground freezes. The heating bill goes up—we’re always … Continue reading
I love snow! So fluffy and pretty, so magical, so peaceful, so…inconvenient. Well, not usually. Usually we’re pretty self-sufficient out here. You have to be, to want to live on an island with only an unreliable (and fairly expensive) ferry … Continue reading
The idea of using fans as a semaphore system is instant story fodder for a lot of storytellers. For me as a young writer it certainly was, but not until decades later, when I invented more complicated social histories that … Continue reading
We happened to stay in a house in Eugene, OR that was quite, quite new. I would say it was built within the last three years or so. The first picture is of its front door. Can you see the … Continue reading
There are unknown things popping up out of the ground. It’s February, you know. For me, February is when spring begins. I can tell because of the birds. They’re already establishing boundaries for family rearing. The male juncos haven’t started … Continue reading
Oh, the news is bad. (please keep reading—it gets better!) 2021 shaping up to be the same pandemic nightmare as 2020. By the time the husband and I are in line for our jabs—the goal post is always moving farther … Continue reading
In his short story “–And He Built a Crooked House” the great Robert Heinlein had a character cautiously opine that a house is, by and large, a device to keep off the rain. This is quite accurate. If you are … Continue reading
You examine every possible symptom and exposure. 1. A “dry cough”: at night, a present tickle in the throat, could it be the antihypertension medication? ACE (angiotensin-converting enzyme) inhibitors are notorious for a side effect of cough. Or is it … Continue reading
