I watch her in awe – the way a sports fan might watch a great athlete – but the thing that this woman has mastered is herself. Every time I’ve been a guest in this friend’s home over the last fifteen years, I am blown away by what a person looks like when she truly […]

She was pleasant enough as she got her luggage in place and we found our seats. There was no way I could anticipate what would come next.  Gum cracking. One. Straight. Hour. Of gum cracking, as I helplessly sat there – a prisoner of noise (popping) pollution – tethered to a seat 30,000 feet in […]

There was an outbreak, and we were likely exposed. At least that’s how it went in my dream. Since my subconscious appears to be more intrigued by French-Canadian side dishes than it is knowledgable of medical terms, the name of the fake disease I concocted was “poutina,” which I’m quite certain is based on “poutine” […]

When I logged onto Facebook yesterday at around 5pm, the first thing I saw was a status update, “Oh no, Mayim!” linked to an article entitled, “Mayim Bialik Hospitalized in Car Wreck, May Lose Finger.” I was in shock. I had just spoken to Mayim the night before. We were supposed to learn later that […]

“Lashon hara is geshmake,” (“Gossip is tasty,”) my rabbi announced to my seminary class years ago. My first inclination was to think, “Oh, no Rabbi, you too?!” But then I realized that God created our world so that gossip would be delicious to most people. Of course there are those who simply have no taste for […]