SOMETIMES THE NEWS is simply too stupid to be ignored. Don’t agree? Did you read what the writer V.S. Naipual said recently about women writers? No? You should. [click to continue…]
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ON THIS DAY in 1934 is the birth of one of the goddesses of conservation, Jane Goodall. She was 26 years old in the summer of 1960, when she arrived on the shore of Lake Tanganyika in East Africa to study the area’s chimpanzee population. We are grateful every day that she stuck with it, and designate her a sister we admire. You know we do this on occasion, yes? No? Either way, please read on. [click to continue…]
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F
ULL SNOW MOON. That is the name of February’s full moon. We take our names for the full moon from the Native American tradition, and this one seems obvious, especially this year, when there has been so much snow, including in places that rarely sees such events as snowstorms. But this moon has also been known as the Full Hunger Moon, which addresses the tragic circumstances when something occurs to affect what food was put up for the winter, and supplies have run out, resulting in widespread hunger in the villages. And while the name of this month’s moon may need no explanation, maybe the moon’s position could use a little. Have you noticed that the moon’s position in the sky seems to change with the seasons? The path changes as one month leads to the next having to do with the sun and the tilt of the earth. That being the case, full moons are very high in the sky at midnight between November and February and low from May to July.
How do I know this? I write and record the daily almanac piece entitled The Naturalist’s Datebook, heard exclusively on Martha Stewart Living Radio, Sirius 112/XM 157. Listen up. And see my other TSP almanac pieces here, including a piece on how I change my diet each month at the full moon, as well as at the new moon.
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LOSING A SISTER. The mere phrase makes me bow my head and mumble words of desperate hope to never confront such a tragedy. And yet, of course, we’ve all lost sisters, whether biological or befriended, and the chill of it stays with us forever. News came last week of the loss of a friend, the loss to all who knew her of a fine, brave woman, mother and sister. Lost to breast cancer. We are bereft, and reach out as we can to sisters everywhere to bang your drums, or shake your fists, pray, mourn, remember, or do what it is you do when another fine woman is taken by this – or any – dreadful disease. [click to continue…]
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A KITCHEN RENOVATION can go only one of two ways: either to transcendent awareness or to divorce court. And our renovation was not elective. Not a bit. Ours was thrust upon us by severe acute water damage, and suddenly I found myself saying the one thing you do not ever want to say in your own kitchen. [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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NOT ASKING YOUR SISTER is dumb. I should know. I learned that lesson when our daughter was 5, and told me that she wanted to be a boy. Actually, it was more specific than that. She told me she wanted a penis.
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I TOLD THEM, AND I TOLD THEM, and I told them again. And still the doctors did not listen. I awakened during procedures; worse, I never fell asleep. Then, finally, science backed me up and I had something to show my doctors before they brushed away my claims of both needing more anesthesia and feeling more pain than most people. Turns out that I am one of a rare breed of mutants who does. Are you? [click to continue…]
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EVERYONE HAS A STORY. It’s true. And the evidence has never been more obvious. Have you seen the size of the scrapbook aisles at Michael’s or A.C. Moore? Have you read any blogs today, or watched as the number of printed personal essays continues to climb, even as the number of pages of our newspapers and magazines continues to decline? But are we writing it as well as we’d like, or are we just saying more? Would some how-to tips help, perhaps? [click to continue…]
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