This Older Woman Talking to the Younger Women in the Room (what I should have said) Sunday night, I had the pleasure of gathering with fifteen brilliant women (writer-friends) to discuss a much-buzzed-about book. None of us had written it, but the conversation sparked strong opinions (writers, after all) and deeply personal disclosures (women, after … Read more
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From Supermarket Rage to Talking to Strangers
Yesterday, while playing bumper carts in Wegmans, fearful I wouldn’t find shredded carrots (oh, the agony of having to shred with my own hands!) I fumed at carts left unattended, blocking the chicken stock I needed. My desire to ram into the young man idling across two lanes in the baking stuff aisle could barely be checked. … Read more
Joyously Baking for Book Events
When I was newly married—at 19, no less— my then-husband and I moved to a farm between Binghamton and Ithaca, New York. His job was being a farmhand. Mine was reading twenty books a week, watching the one television station available, and gaining weight. The cookies below helped wildly in that last endeavor. We lived far … Read more
How the “Boston Globe’s” Confidential Chat and Banana Bread Inspired Me
Years ago, “women’s pages” were in the newspaper, and The Boston Globe featured “Confidential Chat,” I was home with young children (usually many more than my own—we got through the days by sharing kids; it’s better to have a crowd of six one day and none on the other), often baking to conquer my … Read more
Protest? Deadhead? Young Republican? (What Did You Do?)
“KENT, Ohio, May 4—Four students at Kent State University, two of them women, were shot to death this afternoon by a volley of National Guard gunfire. At least 8 other students were wounded. The burst of gunfire came about 20 minutes after the guardsmen broke up a noon rally on the Commons, a grassy campus … Read more