Published in Two Minute Madness·PinnedMember-onlyDump Your Adjectives, Boost Your ProseMark Twain famously wrote: “When you catch an adjective, kill it.” — I imagine he would’ve said the same about adverbs, too. But must we? What’s so bad about adjectives, anyway? Don’t they add spice, specificity, color, and nuance? They’re essential tools in any writer’s arsenal. To eliminate them is like writing without using the letter o or t. Impossible. In high…Writing2 min readWriting2 min read
Published in a Few Words·PinnedMember-onlyTransform Your Writing in 10 MinutesThe writing trick I stumbled upon by accident — When I used to lead writing workshops, I’d type up a piece of writing I admired, and then share it/deconstruct it with the group. A writing exercise usually ensued. But here’s the thing. If, after I typed the writing excerpt, I immediately returned to my own story or essay, something…Writing Tips3 min readWriting Tips3 min read
Published in P.S. I Love You·PinnedMember-onlyWhy the M-Word Doesn’t Bother Me AnymoreA Menopause tale of aging gratefully — It started with a hat. I was trying on a wide-brimmed straw hat at a department store, when a certain look came over my husband’s face. “You don’t like the hat?” “No,” he said with uncharacteristic Archie-Bunker bluntness. My husband comes from a long line of women who know how…Aging7 min readAging7 min read
Published in P.S. I Love You·PinnedMember-onlyBeautiful Lies My Father Told MeThe uses and abuses of storytelling — Every night, Alexandra, my youngest, asks for “stories from the mouth.” She means stories from my childhood, not the kind you read from a book. It’s me she wants, my past, and although part of me holds back, another part can’t resist. I embroider tales about my childhood home, a…Storytelling8 min readStorytelling8 min read
Published in P.S. I Love You·PinnedMember-onlyWhy I Won’t Stand Out as a Jew AnymoreI’m afraid the diversity blanket spreading over America won’t cover me. — I haven’t been bagelled lately. If you’re Jewish, you probably know what that means. In my head scarf a la Zadie Smith, I am recognizably Jewish. Wearing long skirts and long sleeves in the summer also helps peg me as Torah-observant, or Orthodox. All this means, I get bagelled a…Self5 min readSelf5 min read
Published in Be Yourself·May 7, 2022Member-onlyJury Duty Fantasies, Part III(Recap: After years of flimsy alibis and evasions, I accept the jury challenge — via Zoom. The whittling down of potential jurors takes on a beauty pageant aspect. I want to be chosen and am pretty certain I will be, given that the judge already said that her educated guess…Civic Engagement9 min readCivic Engagement9 min read
Published in ILLUMINATION·Jan 11, 2022Member-onlyZoom Jury Selection in these Covidic Times— Part II(Recap: After years of flimsy alibis and evasions, for reasons unclear to me, I accept the jury challenge — via Zoom. Now begins Day Two of the selection process). I sign in to the Zoom account at 8:45 even though the jury session officially begins at nine, and while my…Jury Duty10 min readJury Duty10 min read
Published in Thoughts And Ideas·Dec 3, 2021Member-onlyJury Duty: They Came For MeAnd for some unfathomable reason, I said yes Two or three weeks ago, I receive a pale blue letter from the NJ Courts requesting my participation as a juror. An instinctive dread sets in. Right away my mind flings about for excuses to get out of it, but all the…Jury Duty8 min readJury Duty8 min read
Published in Tell Your Story·Oct 30, 2021Member-onlyAccidental MatchmakerAnd aren’t we all? I was a staff person at a spiritual retreat, mostly handling administrative stuff, but also giving a lecture here and there over the two-day event. It drew families, couples, and lots of singles, like myself. When people would ask me, “Why aren’t you married?” which happened…Matchmaking3 min readMatchmaking3 min read
Published in Tell Your Story·Oct 28, 2021Member-onlyShe Hurled A Rock Through Our WindowThen my father invited her inside our house — I was four, maybe five. We were living in a poky little house on Hampton Boulevard in Norfolk Virginia, me, my two sisters, a bro, my parents and our dog prosaically named Skippy. It was the mid 1960s. Suddenly a rock crashed through our front living room window. I remember…Civil Rights Movement5 min readCivil Rights Movement5 min read
