ABBA Dabba Do!

We laughed, we cried, we sang along. Add the Hannas to the growing list of “Mamma Mia” fans.

I wasn’t that keen on going. I’ve never owned an ABBA album. I don’t automatically start swaying when “Dancing Queen” comes on the radio. And I sometimes have trouble keeping a straight face when characters burst into song in the middle of a conversation.

I never miss a Meryl Streep movie, however–even the dreadful one she did with Goldie Hawn where her head twists around 180 degrees.

Meryl and I have a lot in common. She is smart, talented, and beautiful. I am all three of those when I am dreaming that I will turn into Meryl Streep when I grow up.

My idol worship began when I saw “Kramer vs. Kramer,” still the biggest tear-jerker of all time, except for her next film, “Sophie’s Choice.” Maybe it was the connection I felt to her characters…(Read more)

What’s in a Name?

How do we humans name our offspring? The easiest and most common method is to name them after ourselves. If our name is a good one, our baby boy may become a II or III. It works for girls, too, although without the fancy numeral. For example, I was named after my father. His name is Christian; my middle name is Christine. My first name is Mary because I was born in a Catholic hospital and Mom wanted to ensure that I’d be a crowd-pleaser from Day One.

I didn’t have a daughter to pass the name along to, so my sister named her only female child Mary Christine. She used to be Little Mary until she passed the 6’ mark.  The name was a bit old-fashioned for my niece’s taste, however, and when she was a teenager, she rebelled by spiking her hair, wearing black eye shadow, and signing her…(Read more)

Please Put Safety First

Walking a dog should not be dangerous.  Aside from the occasional unleashed retriever or disoriented skunk, Corky and I never encounter peril on our daily walks.  Until yesterday.

There we were, ambling along.  Well, I was ambling.  Corky, with her 6-inch Frenchie legs, was trotting. We were having a chat about whether the boxer who lives on our street would finally manage to break the picture window in his house.  He invariably announces his disapproval (or maybe it’s just excitement) when we pass his house, by throwing himself at the glass, which shakes and rattles in an unsettling way. 

The glass held on this particular day, and we continued on our way, toward the patch of ivy that is the neighborhood bulletin board for dogs.  Corky spent a good three minutes deciphering the messages left in the ivy before I grew impatient.  I moved her along before she could make a…(Read more)

Oh, Behave!

My friend Zelda was loaded for bear.  During a 10-minute phone conversation she unleashed a stream of complaints against everyone from a driver holding a cell phone who almost backed into her, to a co-worker (A Master’s in English candidate) who, like, talks, like, you know, this.

When she had vented her spleen, Zelda and I discussed our role as elders in our society.  Should we take it upon ourselves to correct people who are not measuring up, or should we keep our mouths shut?  If we don’t uphold the standards of language and behavior that we see steadily eroding, who will?  Are we fated to become a society that can’t speak or write properly, won’t obey simple traffic rules, and thinks manners are old-fashioned?

Traffic offenders are a particular thorn in my side.  I carry on a one-sided conversation with them every time I’m behind the wheel.  It goes like…(Read more)

Song Sung Blue

The weather is perfect, the yard is full of yellow and pink flowers, my family is healthy, and I’m feeling lower than yesterday’s Dow Jones Average.   

Honestly, there’s nothing to be blue about.  Sure, I have aches and pains and minor gripes and disappointments.  Who doesn’t?  Yet, my mood seems all out of proportion to my circumstances.  On Friday, I could hardly move one foot in front of the other.  It was like I was wearing cement booties and I had a rain cloud hovering just over my head.   

Keeper came home from work and asked me how my day went.  I burst into tears.  I couldn’t get any work done at all, I moaned.  I spent four hours on the couch watching a marathon of Project Runway re-runs, I told him, and kicking myself that I was not as clever or creative or hip as the fashion designers on the…(Read more)

Summer Mischief

You don’t need a calendar to know that school is out. Teenagers, once confined to education institutions until at least 2:00 every day, are suddenly everywhere. They are crowding the streets, the parks and the malls, being their boisterous, hormonal, mischievous selves.

In the distant past, I was also a teenager. An email from a high school friend reminded me that next year is our 40th reunion, an event I couldn’t picture in my wildest dreams when I was 16. I admit to my former teenageness to assure you that I have been in the shoes of those who are sudden sprung from prison and have too much time on their hands.

Too much time and not enough to do is perhaps the reason that teenagers have, in the past month, both vandalized our car…(Read more)

You Can’t Go Home Again

I do love my gadgets. I was one of the first to get an iPhone, because I was blinded by lust for its touch screen. Of course, I felt like a chump when Steve Jobs lowered the price, upped the gigabytes and opened up the elite iGroup to the masses.

One gadget I couldn’t justify until now was a GPS device. GPS stands for Global Positioning System, which essentially connects your dashboard with a satellite that tracks your every move. I think what bothered me was the fact that somebody, somewhere would be keeping track of me every time I left the driveway. Maybe I watch too many James Bond movies.

I was ready to sacrifice my privacy after getting totally lost in an undesirable part of San Francisco. As I drove around, frantically…(Read more)

Sleeping on the job

Most of us are not getting enough sleep at night-we need 6 to 8 hours–and our bodies try to make up for it during the day.

The National Sleep Foundation’s annual survey found that one-third of us have fallen asleep or become sleepy at work in the past month. I dispute those findings. Everyplace I’ve worked has had at least a 75 percent sleepiness rate. Walk around any workplace at 3:00 in the afternoon. Those who are at their desks are nodding off. Those who are not at their desks are at Starbucks ordering double shots of espresso.

Whatever the rate of drowsiness in the American workplace, employers are starting to understand that it affects productivity and something needs to be done to counteract it. Access to a “nap room” is the latest (and greatest, in my opinion) employee perk. People who study these things tell us that a 20-minute nap…(Read more)