Went to a surprise party last night for a friend turning fifty. As I am six weeks from sixty, I was marveling at her youth, at the wealth of time ahead of her. A few years ago, when husband Bob turned sixty, my mother, then eighty, said, “You tell him I’ve had twenty good years […] Read More

Turning through an old Utne Reader last night, I came across a stunningly bold artist: Wolfgang Laib. One site I checked him out on called him a Post-Minimalist. Never heard of that before, but I’m in favor. What Laib does is take materials like milk or pollen or rice and use that organic life-generating stuff […] Read More

Just this morning I felt a stupid three-second waver while trying to find someone to sell me a used power supply for my not-new laptop. I was 40 minutes away from the one I’d forgotten and left at my office I was browsing the Yellow Pages, and thinking: But what if I call the wrong […] Read More

For moments when a bit of originality, creativity, authenticity, or daring are needed, try this experiment. Try saying a genuine prayer–even if you’re a nonbeliever. I don’t just mean a reflexive: Oh, God! Get me outta here! I mean: Hello, God, could you join me in this endeavour? Here’s what I need….(then be as specific […] Read More

Amy Poehler — the Saturday Night Live star who played Hillary and Katie Couric to Tina Fey’s Sarah Palin — has launched a bold new venture. A web show called Smart Girls at the Party. It features young girls and aims to inspire young girls and is entertaining even if you, like myself, are not […] Read More

It’s on Hawaii— in a town lyrically named Haiku–built by 22 year-old Chelsea Kohl with her partner Chelsea Heller. The story is in the November issue of Dwell magazine. (The story isn’t yet archived online.) The house is made of found objects including surf boards, a disassembled truck, phone poles, stairs from a sugar mill. […] Read More

I just got a notice from MySpace that I must “use it or lose it.” They’re referring to the MySpace page I acquired in a fit of connectedness a year or so ago. The result of that is being officially located in five social networks. (I paid someone to set me up.) I haven’t done […] Read More

The tune that’s running through my head is “Born Free,” which is probably from my Peter, Paul & Mary days. Blog Free, however, is my current set of lyrics. As I was just saying to one of my brothers on the phone, the cool thing about this kind of writing is that it’s almost unlimited. […] Read More

Who wants to be bold all the time? It would lose its zing. Here’s a nice break: a webcam watching a litter of puppies who are at the perfect age to be the ultimate in delightful. They were all asleep when I just peeked in, but stretching and shifting around and propping their heads on […] Read More

A charming and inspiring Youtube snippet from The Velveteen Rabbit, by Margery Williams Bianco, illustrated with watercolors, read by Meryl Streep, with music by George Winston: “he wished he could become real without these uncomfortable things happening to him.” A classic story–about love and authenticity and a little toy rabbit becoming real, “For a long […] Read More