Marion Roach Smith’s alternate sisterly reality, with Margaret Roach.
MY SISTER’S GARDEN is famous. My sister’s garden is almost as amazing as she is. My sister’s garden is (almost) as eccentric as she is. My sister’s garden is not mine, but because of hers I do have a hand-me-down collection of some wild and crazy plants. [click to continue…]
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ICALL IT “OUR GREAT EXPERIMENT.” My big sister Margaret calls it “Why not, and can-do.” It’s the release today (on the occasion of my “29th” birthday) of my fourth book by none other than big sister-turned-publisher. I think that’s the most unusual gift Margaret ever got me. Both of us Roach sisters also think it’s a must-have for anyone doing any memoir-style writing–whether in print or on a blog–which is what I’ve been teaching to sold-out classes for 13 years. Margaret says my writing tips helped her finish her own memoir, due out next February, which is how she got the idea to publish them. Get the details (and the book). What a birthday this is turning out to be!
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I LOVE THIS SONG BY RICHARD THOMPSON, called “1952 Vincent Black Lightning” after the bike model, and every time I hear it, I think of my red-haired sister, Marion. I don’t even know if she knows the song (or Richard Thompson, or his ex-wife, Linda Thompson, or their son, Teddy Thompson, glorious musicians all). Do you, Marion? But as Richard’s cult hit says…Red hair and black leather, my favorite color scheme… [click to continue…]
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WHO SAYS SISTERS don’t arrive in the cabbage patch? That’s where I found this beauty, which reminds me of no one so much as my sister, Margaret. Organic, beautiful and snappy, while this little darling is not quite as cute as the one I found in the spring, here’s my adopted sister for autumn, the closest thing to Margaret since, well, Margaret.
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TWO SISTERS PLUS ONE BOOK equals two soups. This is the sisterly cooking math we did when our friend and uber-agent Kris Dahl sent us both a new book, and two households went on a pretty much liquid diet. But oh, what liquid! [click to continue…]
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I F WE’RE TALKING HEAVY MACHINERY, Marion, make mine a tractor. You know I am all about terra firma, and will be happy to leave this life without ever stepping into another boat (even if it does have a cool little outboard). This is my first photo, in response to Marion’s throwdown about favorite things, whether your sister knows about them, or shares them–or not. If you have a photo to share, email it to us with a brief caption at thesisterproject at gmail dot com (you know how to format that), and we’ll make a slideshow. Yes? Say yes. Marion asked us to, and you don’t want to argue with a red-headed baby sister; trust me on that.
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Margaret's godfather, Max Hirsch, in a Life magazine photo
JUNE 10 IS MARGARET’S BIRTHDAY, and while I won’t tell you her age (though you can find it on the TSP site), I will celebrate the occasion by telling you a not-so-secret secret about her, which is that each year at Belmont Stakes time, my sister has some explaining to do. [click to continue…]
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Me, at about the age of those precious school-bus years w/Andy Hattenrash.
WHEN WE LEFT OUR HEROINES, one was standing in our parents’ bedroom, holding a photo in her 9-year-old hand. She just wanted ice cream and, as a result of that hunger, came away with a whole lot more than she was after. It would take her little sister—me—14 years to come to the same conclusion that Margaret did in that instant: that our mother was having an affair. [click to continue…]
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THREE MONTHS AGO THIS WEEK, three other “sisters” and I started The Sister Project network. Some 32,000 visits and 900 comments later, we’re celebrating our baby blog by each bubbling up our readers’ favorite posts. Enjoy the most-popular, most-commented things you may have missed, below…and don’t forget to go meet my “sisters” (and bring yours along next time).
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BELATED, PERHAPS, but better late than never: 25 random things about our childhood, from my side of the equation, in answer to Marion’s.
1. The prefix Mar- has been a persistent, insistent sound in my life. I am named for a grandma I never met, Margaret; am granddaughter to another I revered, Marion; I am sister to a Marion, too; best friend to a Marco; ex-aide to a Martha. I am regularly called all of those names (except Marco, owing to gender realities), and answer to them by reflex. If you utter that first critical syllable, I will turn my head or come running before you form the next. [click to continue…]
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BIKING WITH MOM: Nowhere is our story more two-sided than on the topic of our mother.
First time here? Here's the idea: The Sister Project is a network of blogs about the many facets of the word sister, and the concept of sisterhood. A sisterhood of sister blogs, you could say. Whatever sister means to you, from identical twin to sister-in-law (or in friendship or in feminism), we’ll make room to listen in about it or express it on TSP. Like the slogan up top on our homepage says, “Don’t you have something to say to your sister?” We've got galleries of art and literature by and about sisters, and a Sisterpedia of sisterly trivia...but now we're getting ahead of ourselves. The quick study: Learn more about TSP, and how to find your way around. And oh—a giant, sisterly welcome.