The U.S. economy has stopped. The global economy has almost stopped. The United States, as of April 24, 2020, has a 20% unemployment rate which means 26.5 million Americans are out of work. More than 9 million have lost health insurance—in the middle of a pandemic?!?! …

Every morning I open our windows and surprisingly sweet air flows into our tiny San Francisco apartment. The birds sing-song back and forth, delighted to have the city’s airwaves to themselves. No planes, few cars. The COVID19 Crisis may be nature’s way of taking back her planet. In these sad…

Writers always talk about how real life is stranger than fiction — case in point. All the shops in our cute, bustling neighborhood closed early on Monday. Or was that Tuesday? We have lived months in just one week. San Francisco went into lockdown, now California is in lockdown. …

Well, fiction has become reality. We live inside a sci-fi film. SF is so quiet, so eerie. Store shelves are empty. No toilet paper, no paper towels. Almost all cultural events have been cancelled or postponed. City Arts & Lectures and some other venues are live streaming events. The Roxie…

Many years ago, a mysterious bedfellow, a wild creature of the night, gave me a new perspective on love and loneliness. It was the day after Valentine’s Day. I came home in the morning to find little dots of mud in a circle on my pale blue duvet. I had…

Dear Reader, Before you begin this piece, find a scent, a perfume, a tea, a coffee, some chocolate, a rose from your garden to smell while you read. Imagine Paris had no smell. No whiff of hot baguette, no aroma of café crème, no hint of musk in your wine…

December is a month of birthdays — Frank Sinatra’s, Jesus Christ’s, and the sun’s. …

Dining together is one of the most mundane and meaningful of acts, and Thanksgiving is a quintessential example. Thanksgiving is meant to represent gratitude for the peaceful coming together of Native Americans and European immigrants. Sadly, we know that it also represents the deaths of millions of Native Americans who…

Memories of New York in autumn run through my head, flashes of light fold time, origami stars. The darkness of the cemetery lies naked next to the candy-orange glow of the wind-up flats. Of course it would be the sun’s brightest glimmer that reveals the darkest depths of our eyes…