Archive for the ‘General’ Category

An Eye in the Storm—Victor Anderson’s Memorial

Wednesday, January 25th, 2012

I wrote this piece shortly after Victor Anderson’s death, in October 2001. I am reprinting it here because Victor’s name came up in conversation with a friend this morning, and I realized that I want the story of my experience at his memorial to be available to readers here as well. Things just hadn’t been [...]

Look Ma, No Hands! – Dream Talk Radio Takes Off

Wednesday, May 4th, 2011

Last Thursday marked a milestone for my radio show, Dream Talk Radio, when I broadcast my last live show from the KOWS-fm studio in Occidental. For over three years, I have spent every Thursday from 9-10 am on the air, talking about dreams and sleep health, culture, creativity, and broader social issues. But from now [...]

Mugwort Harvest!

Saturday, August 14th, 2010

Fall fell with a thunk today, as the air turned from summer-fog-wet to winter-is-coming-cold. You have to live here for a couple years at least to feel the shift, but California does have four seasons, and they change roughly at the cross-quarter days: May 1 for Summer, Aug 1 for Fall, Nov 1 for Winter, [...]

Math Is Not Linear

Wednesday, May 26th, 2010

Okay, I know this doesn’t have much to do with the main subjects of this blog, but in addition to everything else I tutor middle school kids in math. Not very complicated math—I excel at introducing algebraic concepts to 5th and 6th graders, while helping them understand fractions and decimals. I am not a math [...]

How Time Flies

Monday, September 21st, 2009

What a banner weekend—a heady mix of the new moon, Ramadan, Rosh Hashanah, and Autumn Equinox. The air has that piercing clarity of autumn too, with the touch of morning chill that makes the apples and pears so crisp and flavorful. My little apple tree is still too much of a fledgling to bring forth [...]

Out of the Mouths of Babes

Monday, November 3rd, 2008

In this case, a very cute Welsh/American youngster, aka my niece Elena the Pundit. Weighing in from her elite media lair in Cardiff, Elena has this to say about the election: [display_podcast]

What Rough Beast

Monday, October 27th, 2008

In the darkness before sunrise I got up, put the kettle on for tea, and went to the computer for a first pass at headlines and email. It was a bit early for poetry, but my eyes were caught by a snatch of it, in all places on the New York Times op-ed page. My [...]

Stopping on a Paradigm

Sunday, October 19th, 2008

Yesterday in a Sebastopol parking lot I ran into an old acquaintance who, like me, drives an aging car. I joked with him about the fact that we were still keeping our jalopies going, when he came over to me with a conspiratorial smile. “I don’t know what you believe, but there’s this website…” Oh [...]

A Modest Accomplishment

Friday, August 1st, 2008

Amazingly, those items on my to-do lists keep getting crossed off. It takes me longer to get things done than I think it ought to, and I tend to get impatient with myself. In times like these, two things come in very handy. One is keeping those completed lists on my desk for a few [...]

I hate to say this, but…

Tuesday, July 8th, 2008

…this may be the year when people aside from my kids get really tired of me saying “I told you so” all the time. Case in point: this blog post detailing how Toyota is worried about being perceived as an old people’s car. They have replaced Sly and the Family Stone in their ads with [...]