Pops, indicating the height of the trees when his dad planted them 70 years ago.
In my recent, breezy, Twitter-length series of As to some Qs about lesbian fatherhood, I wrote: “My dad is one of the beacons of love in my life.”  True story.  One of his most oft-repeated definitions of family is this [...]

Kid’s baseball card photo/talisman, Berkeley, CA.
Had to wait ’til Monday, since over the weekend the spirits flagged too much. Kept looking at pictures of pictures of my nephew, who would have turned 15 on Saturday. Couldn’t post a picture of anything other than him, but then couldn’t really post about him, either. So, a blank [...]

The boy and I are driving back from a morning’s peregrinations — hardware store (my idea, natch), bakery (we both agreed, natch), library (his suggestion) — and we were listening to one of his favorite songs on the Free to Be You and Me album: “When We Grow Up.”
It’s sung by Diana Ross, and here [...]

This image is of a Wonka-esque factory along Copenhagen’s harbor, taken by me using my sister’s cellphone camera.  I was brandishing it out the window of a moving taxi en route to the Opera House and the beloved’s and my first date night with childcare (ever? certainly in a foreign country).
My then-family of three was [...]

The deathless Malvina Reynolds, on death (and loving life). “This World,” 1961:

Baby, I aint afraid to die,
It’s just that I hate to say goodbye
To this world, this world, this world.
This old world is mean and cruel,
But still I love it like a fool,
This world, this world, this world.

I’d rather go to the corner store
Than sing [...]

Mercedes Sosa, Argentine Folk Singer, Is Dead at 74
What a voice, what a heart, what a force of nature. From the New York Times obituary, linked above: ”I didn’t choose to sing for people,” Sosa said in a recent interview on Argentine television. ”Life chose me to sing.”

I wanted to caption this picture “Alas, poor Yorick! I knew him well,” but the beloved thought that would be too strange and obscure.  Also, if I used the actual Shakespearean line, “Alas, poor Yorick! I knew him, Horatio” and so on, it wouldn’t hook the same way, since we’re all too accustomed to the [...]

A wee anecdote: not much, but all I can muster at the moment, what with all the pre-K doings to do (and savor) these days.
We hauled our family out of bed early — must practice for tomorrow! 8am school bell, yegods! — and rewarded our accomplishment with a special breakfast out.  We chose a local [...]