It is terribly true, even if the truth does not comfort, that if you look at the moon for long enough night after night, as I have, you will see that the old cartoons are correct, that the moon is, in fact, laughing. But it is not laughing at us, we lonely humans, who are…
Sometimes when I look at blogs, I can't help but think that none of this is real. Not only is this not how real people eat, it's also the fact that so much of what gets put on a blog--towering cakes of remarkable beauty, perfectly plated vegetables and meals cooked only during the daylight hours*--defies…
Goodness is a large, often a prospective word; like harvest, which at one stage when we talk of it lies all underground, with an indeterminate future; is the germ prospering in the darkness? At another, it has put forth delicate green blades, and by-and-by the trembling blossoms are ready to be dashed off by an…
The stuffing was pleasantly salty, flecked with celery and onion and rich with the flavor of broth. It was, in short, exactly as I remembered it. I told my grandmother just that, letting her know that I had missed these flavors during our Thanksgivings apart. Never mind that I could have made her stuffing myself;…
"And it seemed that, just a little more--and the solution would be found, and then a new, beautiful life would begin; and it was clear to both of them that the end was still far, far off, and hat the most complicated and difficult part was just beginning." -Anton Chekhov (The Lady with the Little…
The Strawberry receives as warm a welcome in June as does the primrose of spring, and for the same reason. -Edward A. Bunyard (The Anatomy of Dessert: With a Few Notes on Wine)Lately, I've been struggling to lose myself in novels. I don't know if my mind has been too preoccupied with the ongoing (and…
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…
"What made Madeleine sit up in bed was something closer to the reason she read books in the first place and had always loved them. Here was a sign that she wasn't alone. Here was an articulation of what she had been so far mutely feeling. In bed on a Friday night, wearing sweatpants, her…
I have no recipe for you today, nor do I have a quote. It's just me ("my naked words") and pictures of food. You see, I've long been thinking that, with the return of school, teaching yet another class (my sixth!), the study of Greek and my old friend, The Dissertation, my fall blog posting…
...If I had another lifeI would want to spend it all/on some unstinting happiness.I would be a fox, or a treefull of waving branches.I wouldn't mind being a rosein a field of roses.Fear has not yet occurred to them,/nor ambition.Reason they have not yet thought of.Neither do they ask how long they/must be roses, and…
Dining with Dostoevsky 