DOES POTATO SALAD make you stand on your tippy-toes, your head, your…shoulders, and…neck and…um, other places that aren’t meant to be stood upon? We love potato salad, though maybe not quite as much as the unbelievable dancing sisters Aggie, Maggie and Elmira Ross. (Their real names were Vicki, Dixie and Betsy Ross–perfect for an Independence Day salute.) Watch the 1944 clip of the contorting triplets above and you’ll get the connection, we promise! And then, with July 4th fast approaching, join us as we dust off our vintage recipe stash for fresh takes on the ultimate summer barbecue and picnic staple: [click to continue…]
by paige on June 26, 2009
ARE YOU A SUCCESSFUL list maker? I try to be, I do. I use different tools, on paper and on my computer, to try to keep track of the too-many-to-list obligations and opportunities in my life (not to mention the lives of my husband and kids.) But somehow, I’m not so good at organization, which means I’m not so good at actually accomplishing long-term goals. I can do the stuff that’s right in front of me, but looking beyond the disaster at the end of my nose is, um, a challenge. When it comes to flaws and failings, there’s nothing like a little exhibitionism to keep you honest, so for this summer, I decided to come out of the closet with the things I need and want to get done. [click to continue…]
by paige on June 23, 2009
- This summer, the River promises to get back in the saddle.
I NEVER THOUGHT OF summer as a time geared toward high achievement. Work on your backstroke, or your golf swing, or your garden? Sure. But anything more ambitious than grilling a perfect burger seems like more work than humid, lazy days can or should contain. It seems, though, that my kids, the Rock and the River, disagree. [click to continue…]
by paige on June 19, 2009
A 17th Century Commonplace Book
O NE OF MY SISTER-FRIENDS is going through a rough, tough time. Wisely, I think, she’s remembered to put out the call to her sisters both real (lucky girl, she has two of them) and virtual for support. I was particularly struck by a brilliant request she made a couple of weeks ago. What did she ask for to get her through? You’ll never guess. [click to continue…]
by paige on June 17, 2009
From 'The Betty Betz Teenage Cookbook', 1953
WE HAD OUR first picnic of the summer last weekend, my family and I, thanks to an impromptu visit from a dear sister-friend. Given plenty of advance notice, I had choices to make, cookbooks to consult, menus to plan. [click to continue…]
by paige on June 12, 2009
Charlotte Brontë's first sampler
YOU KNOW HOW great it feels when you find a sister (or sister-friend) loves one of your wacky obsessions as much as you do? Well, we’re pretty sure that the Brontës would have shared our obsession with the wonderful opportunities for, um, self-expression through embroidery. [click to continue…]
by paige on June 10, 2009
HOW’S THIS FOR A PLOT? Two couples meet, fall in love–each with the other’s partner–dissolve their existing marriages, switch partners, and marry again. Wild enough. But now imagine that within these two fragile families are four young girls, two each, all close in age. Two of them, named Jenny and Jane, even share the same birthday, one year apart. The four girls are all now sisters, of a sort. What sort of sad, strange family is this? [click to continue…]
I CAN’T BELIEVE IT’S SUMMER. I mean, it’s not summer, but it is summer “vacation,” which like every other school vacation, means my so-called vacation is over, and I am smacked in the face with every single failing I see in my work as a parent. I have to take deep breaths, and look to other, better mamas for a fun and happy path through the long days. Luckily, those better mamas are out there, and they’re online. [click to continue…]
IN THE WINTER, it’s all about the nightstand: That’s where my teetering, tottering pile of reading material and wishful thinking resides most of the year. (Where I live, winter IS five months long, and that pile is tall.) But now, as the sun finally shines more hours than not, and the end of school approaches, and with that transition, the prospect of lazy afternoons spent–dare I dream?– reading, begins to tantalize. [click to continue…]
HERE AT TSP, we’ve never said you don’t have a lot to say, on a lot of different topics. But apparently, sisters, you really, really like to talk about bras. [click to continue…]
First time here? Here's the idea: 
No surprise, really, that sisterhood, often life’s longest relationship and always one of its most important, has been the Muse for so much creative self-expression by women, and also by men. 
As the suffix of its name suggests, 
