Memoir

I recently tried to take a proactive approach to managing my dandelion situation. I retrieved a jug of weed killer from the shelf, something I used last year, and like an illiterate looking for a haircut by walking into the store with the candy-cane post out front, I trusted the picture of the dead dandelion … Read more

In the fifties and sixties, American culture was shaped when lunch counters became one of the focal points for establishing racial integration. Lunch counters were the precursors to modern fast food, and it wasn’t just Woolworth’s and S.S. Kresge’s stores that had them, but nearly every store with a little sliver of space provided a … Read more

I had an incident while preparing Nan bread from a recipe that called for heating a pizza stone to 500 degrees. A pizza stone, if you are not familiar, is thick clayware that acts as a heatsink to help ensure the crust is thoroughly baked. And 500 degrees, by the way, is really hot. After … Read more

There were three interesting things going on in Cleveland in 1969: the Cuyahoga River caught fire for the second time, there were riots on the East side, and I was entering kindergarten. Being a chubby little kid of four (going on five!) I was oblivious to much of the world. I wouldn’t understand for a … Read more

I was the youngest of three boys, and I had the special pleasure of spending my fourth year with my mother while my brothers were at school. It was a golden age for any child, to have their mother in good health, with money to spend, and living in a fairly modern city (Cleveland) in … Read more