Recently, in discussing the writer’s self-doubt in the comments with writer Greta, I speculated that even my hero the recently passed John Updike probably had such moments. In one of the tributes to Updike in The New Yorker since, I found proof of this. In a letter to novelist E.L. Doctorow, Updike wrote that as […] Read More

I’ve just come from my friend Laurel‘s 70th birthday brunch, held by the members of her Thursday afternoon writer’s class/group, which I have been a member of for 26 years. In advance of the day, we put together a small album in which we each had six pages to use as we wish to express […] Read More

Response to my Wednesday’s post about dealing with a Blue Cross coverage malfunction leads me to impassionedly say more. The ideas a couple of people expressed — which I welcome! — include the view that others are worse off, I shouldn’t sweat the small stuff, and that I think about what Gandhi would do . […] Read More

So after my first efforts failed, I (boldly) talked with a Blue Cross rep by phone who kindly told me the name of a drugstore where I could get a vaccination that would be covered. The next day I went to the drugstore. They give the anti-shingles shots, but said my insurance wouldn’t cover it. […] Read More

Lately I’ve been feeling indomitable in the matter of solving the kinds of little problems that often I’m tempted to let sit a few days. Like dealing with getting an acknowledgment of purchase for an order I’d just cancelled. Or finding someone to give me a vaccination in the manner that my insurance company requires. […] Read More

Oboy. Health insurance Catch-22,000. Here’s what I emailed to my friend Angela Friday when this happened: “I ordered the $200 serum for the shingles vaccine after checking to see that it was covered. When I went to get it to take to my doc, the pharm. said they hadn’t covered it because it had to […] Read More

Major bold move of this weekend so far: I bought a new crossword puzzle book, having done all I could with the last one. The ones I currently go for are the New York Times easy-to-hard collections. I once threw away an unfinished one that was all Sunday Times crosswords. (Times puzzles are easiest on […] Read More

Looks like I’m finished with a large writing project. There may be a few more details, but probably not much more than that. I like the weightless feeling that getting something done gives me. On the other hand, this was extremely interesting: revising a book on a topic that fascinates me. I’ll miss it. But […] Read More

I was so happy with yesterday’s inauguration, in large ways and small. I do feel that we begin fresh again, perhaps as we have never done before. Here in central North Carolina, we woke up to see new fresh deep snow, as we’ve not seen here in quite a long while. Everything looked pristine. And […] Read More

Here it is MLK Day and I’m not at the march just down the street; instead I’m obsessed with V.S. Naipaul. Now, Martin Luther King is one of the people I admire most in all of human history. Never has boldness been put to better use than in the creation of the nonviolent civil rights […] Read More