Counting the Cars on the New Jersey Turnpike
November 22, 2009 Sunday Countin’ the cars on the New Jersey Turnpike, They’ve ll gone to look for America.                   — Paul Simon, b. 1941                       American singer-songwriter Lynn went on a Gallivant this weekend. In celebration of her boyfriend’s birthday last week, they drove from southeastern Pennsylvania to Boston to visit the

Testing Testing
November 17, 2009 Tuesday Unlike many Americans, particularly women who do not have a paying job, I am fully, and generously, insured, thanks to having worked for many years for a single employer. Benefits were part of the contract negotiated for me and my colleagues by a group that styled itself as a “professional organization” because “labor union” sounded so blue-collar and so adversarial, but that’s what it was. And in or

Failure to Progress
November 16, 2009 Monday Can the child within my heart rise above? Can I sail through the changing ocean tides? Can I handle the seasons of my life?                       — Stevie Nicks, b. 1948                           American singer-songwriter I knew there wouldn’t be any answers today. I didn’t know the questions would remain unasked. In rec

Bare Ruined Choirs
November 15, 2009 Sunday That time of year . . . When yellow leaves, or none, or few, do hang Upon those boughs which shake against the cold, Bare ruined choirs, where late the sweet birds sang.                   — William Shakespeare, 1564-1616                        English poet and playwright Our lawn service came on Friday to do the “fall cleanup.” They

Remembrance
November 11, 2009 Wednesday Last year, for Holidailies, I started giving links at the end of the current piece to the Holidailies pieces of the past. At the beginning of the month I decided to do the same for NaBloPoMo, extracting actual text as a pullquote rather than giving a summary of what I’d written about. Also during Holidailies last year, I started using a technique many busy columnists and television programmers use.