The past few weeks have been several shades of brutal. No matter what I've been doing, whether speed reading a book with a looming library due date or keeping up with the piles of dishes that always manage to accumulate when I'm looking the other way, I've felt more than a little pressed for time.…
The path to paradise begins in hell. -Dante AlighieriEach time I go to Greece it's as if I fall under a magical spell. It's a place of pristine blue skies, endless sunshine and food that fills both my heart and my belly with nothing but joy. I feel like myself, as well as a better,…
He has, if the truth be told, been putting it off for months: the moment when he must face the blank page, strike the first note, see what he is worth. -J.M. Coetzee (Disgrace) May, the Emerald month, has arrived in all of its glory, bringing with it its usual companions of bright colors, blossoms, sunshine,…
But Mousie, thou art no thy lane,In proving foresight may be vain:The best laid schemes o' mice an' menGang aft a-gley.An' lea'e us nought but grief an' painFor promised joy. -Robert Burns ("To a Mouse")Last Friday we discovered that there was a mouse in the house. Needless to say, this was a horrifying discovery; I…
The house is silent when Marietta has left and Mrs. Lethwes feels free again. The day is hers now, until the evening. She can go from room to room in stockinged feet and let the telephone ring unanswered. She can watch, if the mood takes her, some old black-and-white film on the television, an English…
I can hardly believe that, less than a week ago, I was rambling through Carmel, Monterey and Point Lobos, almost without a care in the world. To put it mildly, all of that seems like a lifetime ago. The Greek and I returned to various tasks in Berkeley last Tuesday evening and now, one Greek…
“Behavior is a mirror in which every one displays his own image.” -Johann Wolfgang Goethe Recently, I was thinking about therapy and how it's designed to teach you about yourself--to give you the "tools" for introspection and growth. If you go to therapy, you could talk about many things that bother you, from people to…
The lowest of the low are the womens' page recipes in newspapers and magazines, which appeal only to the showoff--'Startle your guests' or the seducer--'Surprise your husband', which give neither value or pleasure and whose premise, coyly stated, is that cooking is easy and is such fun. -Nicolas Freeling (The Kitchen Book) Much to Mr.…
My older sister has entire kingdoms inside of her, and some of them are only accessible during certain seasons, in certain kinds of weather. One such melting occurs in summer rain, at midnight, during the vine-green breathing time right before sleep. You have to ask the right question, throw the right rope bridge, to get…
Dining with Dostoevsky 