Model T’s: Get on Board for a Trip Back in Time
On a recent Sunday afternoon, my landlord showed up on my front porch, ringing my doorbell. He was adamant that I come outside. “You need to see this,” Sean said. Although of different generations (he’s 20 years younger), we both appreciate things that have a history.
The Last Tomato of Summer
There are some things in life that you never get tired of, no matter how many times you experience them. Train whistles, fireworks, lunar eclipses, rainbows — they retain their original thrill. That also applies to a just-picked, vine-ripened tomato. With its cool interior and sweet-acidic juice, there’s nothing better to eat on a hot summer day.
Summer isn’t summer until I satisfy my craving for this divine food of the gods.
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Neil Armstrong: His Small Step, Our Big Moment
I was on the Stairmaster at my health club Saturday afternoon when I looked up at the bank of TV monitors in front of me. On the scrolling CNN news banner at the bottom of the screen were the words, “That’s one small step for man, one giant leap for mankind.” I immediately thought, yeah, Neil Armstrong, you try climbing 200 steps on this thing.
Why Positive Thinking Doesn’t Work!
I recently wrote a blog about how the good things in life always come back, like eagles, heirloom tomatoes, Thunderbird convertibles and other bygone treasures.
I can now add another good thing to that list: negative thinking.
What Men Love About Fiftysomething Women
When, for the heck of it, I typed in “What makes a person sexy?” on my browser the other day, I was directed to a “Yahoo! Answers” discussion site. All of the replies were from young men and women whose predictable insights included: “A pretty face, not too chubby,” “Hot body,” “Voluptuous figure” and “Beautiful eyes and a nice body.”
In the midst of these observations was a comment from a young woman named Keiko. It grabbed my attention.
Judy Garland: Where Her Rainbow Began
In the smash Broadway play The End of the Rainbow, the last months of Judy Garland’s life are depicted as desperate and grueling. Having seen the show in Minneapolis last spring, during its pre-New York run, I wanted to get another perspective on the beloved, tortured performer.
Can Gay Be Cured? My Psychiatrist Tried . . .
In today’s politically correct world people are always demanding apologies. So when someone prominent voluntarily apologizes for something he or she said or did, it makes front-page news.
Last month there was a page one story in The New York Times (“Psychiatry Giant Sorry for Backing Gay ‘Cure'”) about Dr. Robert Spitzer, considered by some to be the father of modern- day psychiatry. Eighty years old and suffering from Parkinson’s, Dr. Spitzer can barely walk, sit in a chair or hold his head up. Still, on a recent morning at 4 a.m., he got out of bed in Princeton, N.J., and went to his computer, “knowing there was something he had to do,” the Times said. He wrote an apology to the gay community.
The Explosive Power of Love, Sex and Fireworks
For much of my life, I could take or leave fireworks.
But that was before I rented the 1955 movie, Summertime, directed by David Lean. In it, Katharine Hepburn plays a spinster school teacher who takes a vacation in Venice and winds up having an affair with the suave owner of an antique store, played by Rossano Brazzi. Upon seeing a phallic- shaped, red wine goblet in his shop window, she decides she has to have it. Romance ensues.
Seasonal Eating: Why My Perfect Tomato Wasn’t Perfect
In America, we love our tomatoes. We grow them all summer long — in backyard gardens, and on our patios and decks. We buy them at farmers markets and roadside stands. Summer isn’t summer without tomatoes. Imagine, though, if we could have them 12 months of the year, even in winter. I don’t know about your state, but here in Minnesota that’s become a culinary reality.