WHAT TO GIFT? It’s that time when we angst over the perfect giftFor teachers or dog walkers, parents and kids. It’s overwhelming in stores and online. What if i just grab a bottle of wine?that’s too darned easy, just red, white and pinkThe holidays already have plenty to drink Candles say “half-price” or gift drawer malaiseSo what does one give for ...
This is the last morning my son will wake up in our home for a very long time. He is moving to Australia, a continent with a completely different set of constellations. We will no longer share the same sky. Since man first stared out at horizons, since we learned to build boats and muster armies, to conquer lands or scratch an adventuresome itch, ...
Each year I buy a giant Costco sized bag of mixed candy for Halloween trick-or-treaters. And in the past few years, there has been no one home to pass it out. It’s been my custom to dutifully leave a sign next to the bowl ( like the Village Idiot in a ground hog day loop) asking kids to just take a few. And each year, a neighbor has informed me, that ...
Indian summer. It’s described as a period (usually in the northeast) of unseasonably warm and dry weather. It’s that shortish stretch of perfect temperature to be outside, or sleep with the windows open. It’s still shorts and skorts weather, flip flops with a sweatshirt, the days just before there’s a real nip in the air. It was Indian summer that ...
This month’s spotlight on an indie is a shout-out to Kepler’s Bookstore, founded in Menlo Park in 1955. With a fiercely groovy Bay Area backstory (The Grateful Dead and Joan Baez performed there) and a goal to democratize reading, the bookstore became the cultural epicenter and social heart of the community until eroding sales in 2005 forced it to close ...