Seventeen
“Seventeen” is a mid-70s love song by Janis Ian– horrible in the way all mid-70s love songs are — but with a message and a universality that has earned it a permanent home on my “Sappy Love Songs” playlist. Because seventeen is when we begin to understand ourselves and our place in this world. I […]
Seesters
She turns 49 today. That hardly seems possible. I still remember her sitting at the kitchen table in our Weston Village apartment, layering her blue eye shadow as she gazed into her Clairol multi-light mirror. Styx played in the background as she flipped her bangs with a large-barreled curling iron and meticulously applied her shiny, […]
It Takes a (Kind) Village
As a writer, I face rejection on a daily basis. People love or hate my work — or worse, they’re indifferent to it. Agents say no, publishers say no, magazine editors say no. What that’s done for me is thicken my skin. (Not thicken my rear end, although some would beg to differ.) My point? […]
The Perks of Having an Under-Protective Mother
I think movie raters might be dyslexic. The PG-13 rating? At times, I think they really mean for it to be PG-31. In fact, I’m not sure the movie I saw last week should have been less than a PG-42. I wasn’t quite ready for it. Maybe when I’m 43… It was a good idea […]
Permitted
It’s official. He has his learner’s permit. He’s the first of the Willis’s to have something issued by the state of Mississippi, and he’s pretty darn excited about the whole deal. We’ve been out on the road with him a few times already. Here’s what I’ve observed… 1. He’s a Right Side Hugger. Perhaps it’s […]