You stop me in the street, at church and Kroger, even at Curves, and tell me what you like about this column, in no particular order:
One favorite subject is our daughter Mary describing her life as a pianist at the Duesseldorf Opera:

Mary speaks: My neighbor [whom I named Heinrich] never got any further than the grass and circle of bushes that you saw. The remains of a long firecracker lay there for two months. I could never figure out why it took someone until March to remove it. Read More»

Been thinking about our daughter Mary’s apartment. Because war damage essentially leveled the north-central German city of Düsseldorf, the city arose from the rubble in a surfeit of architectural gems. Read More»

Dear girls,
I thought I’d better write you with details of my first – first! – traffic accident so you aren’t taken by surprise if you see it in the paper.

Never mind the sordid details. Especially since I was found to be at fault. Briefly, as I was turning right off Crosstown Road and onto Peachtree Parkway, a pickup truck came through the 4-way. I watched the truck as long as it was passing where I was waiting, and I started to pull out behind him. Read More»

Sometimes we catch ourselves using and reusing language, and we delete and rephrase ourselves, proud of rutting out a cliché. Half a page further on and we look at what we’ve written and without hesitation, delete it in favor of a cliché. Some clichés are just right for the job, with no apologies.

Hence a few entries from The Dictionary of Clichés by James Rogers. Some of his more than 2,000 entries are so obscure you wonder why he bothered; others are so exactly right they shine like a new penny.

Join me amongst the clichés…. Read More»

It has been heartening to me the number of grandmas whose grandbabies have been diagnosed with autism. Whether at church or Curves or the Kroger, grandparents of autistic children come up to me with huge smiles and saying, “We have an autistic grandchild too and you’d never know it.”
I still have no idea what to expect – it’s hard having grandchildren who live 700 miles away. Samuel is a joy to our daughter and her husband, and most of those who know him. Read More»

This is the winter our grandkids will mean when they tell their grandchildren, “You call this snow? Ha! Once we had snow so deep I could stand up in it and disappear. This is nothing! Predicting another 18 inches tonight? Pshaw! We had three feet in Virginia in the Winter of 2010, without drifting. In just one day. With another two feet predicted for the next day.”

This is the winter newscasters will recall giving the news while snowflakes blow crosswise across their faces. Even among women reporters it’s a macho thing. Even if the news is about nothing related to snow. Read More»

When I look back on the 10 or so years that I worked at Peachtree Medical Center, I see the history of medical services in my new hometown. Occasionally another member joined the staff, but for at least its first decade, Dr. Henry Drake’s staff consisted of Bonnie, Juanita, Mary Ann and me.

Patients regarded Bonnie and Juanita as nurses, Mary Ann as receptionist, billing and file clerk. I was whatever they needed. Read More»

Last week, my grouchy toy bear Griz began telling me how he flew with his jackdaw friend Bergdohle to witness the arrival of angels in Bethlehem...

Griz continues:

We found a rock where we could hide from the wind while we waited. I was so excited. Read More»