Last night I was lying in bed listening to Selected Shorts. I listen to a lot of NPR while lying in bed – oddly, I find it soothing. Billy Collins, the former poet laureate, was reading a a piece he’d written about writing. I’ve been reading a long profile about another poet, John Ashbery, in …
What is it about the little ukulele that enchants us so? Maybe it’s because it’s so easy to learn. Maybe it’s the sweet silly sound. Maybe it’s the myth (not true) that you can’t play the blues on the uke. I credit a lot of the charm to my fellow players who, it seems, are …
If you live in the Pacific Northwest, you know that we’ve just come through more than 10 days of vile weather. Seattle has been at it’s absolute worst for the last two weeks, rainy, windy, and just above freezing. The sun seems to never come out. Yesterday, at about 3:30, I put on my big …
Lyrics to the original Frosty the Snowman song by Steve Rollins and Steve Nelson (1950), make no mention of any religious icons. But later, Frosty was picked up by Rankin Bass, who made all those cartoons that my generation grew up watching at holiday time. Rankin Bass added the Santa factor, and no amount of …
Those of you who are not familiar with my obsession for baked goods, well, you don’t even know me, really, do you? No matter. When I read about Minoo in today’s paper, there was only one thing to do: Hop in the car to Lake City and get some sugar. I ate a bamieh and …
There’s a bit of work going on in the house lately and sometimes it pays to just clear off. Today the floors were being sanded. Down the hill, M’s got painters in, so we trundled into her car and headed south in to the fog. Destination? The Weyerhauser Bonsai Garden. Who knew? What a gorgeous …