I’m certain I’ve recorded this story in an earlier blog, but it bears repeating. Several years ago, two of my neighbors suffered from schizophrenia. They were bright and highly educated women. One was a poet and the other an oil painter. Though extraordinarily talented, both
When Prerna Gupta decided to take a year off to write fiction with her husband, the couple experimented by crafting stories for cell phone apps. Though the pieces were short, no more than a 5 minute read, only 15% of viewers finished them. That’s when the pair decided to experimen
While having lunch with a former student the other day, I reminisced about my childhood. Mine was far from ideal, being raised in Los Angeles in the 1940s and subjected to racial prejudice because my mother was a Latina. Nonetheless, as I approach the 80th decade of my life, I
Like many people, this election year has left me confused. Strong man Donald Trump changes his mind the way the rest of us change our socks, but he has been consistent in his view that America is weak. (“The Strongman Trump Wanted,” Excerpted from The Washington Post, July 20, 2
For proof positive that men and women don’t think alike, consider the way each buys underwear. A woman would think twice before buying a bra over the internet unless she knows the product. From cup size, to the underwire, to the straps that dig into your flesh, there are too man
Passing from the popular scene without much fanfare is the VCR. Japan’s Funai Electronics has announced it will stop making the machines because it has difficulty finding parts and because sales are on a sharp decline. In its heyday, Funai sold up to 1.5 million units annually.
When she accepted the presidential nomination of the Democratic Party, Hillary Clinton admitted she had every intention of playing the woman’s card during the campaign. That’s code for saying women’s interests in health, safety and child development would be front and center i
I received a lovely rejection letter the other day for one of my weird parables. The editor hadn’t a clue about what I was doing but wanted to help, perhaps seeing a glimmer of talent. He made suggestions entirely inappropriate to the genre I was inventing but which, I suspect
The presumption during the Democratic primary had been that Hillary was conservative and Bernie Sanders was pulling her to the left. That’s not the Clinton I know but I understand why others might think it. So far, she’s largely been judged by the men with whom she associates.
After the flap over Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsberg’s unflattering remarks about Donald Trump, I thought we had laid to rest the illusion that people, including justices, are impartial. Certainly, Sandra Day O’Conner wasn’t impartial in 2000 when she decried that Al