Meteorology or: How Poetry & Weather Mix

I’m back from a week that featured the most perfect island weather known to man. Brilliant sunshine every day. Passing clouds that not once let loose a drop of rain. Tropical breezes that sometimes veered to hat-lifting winds. Velvety nights featuring skies lit by stars that I would swear twinkled more brightly than the same ones … Continue reading →

Crimes & Misdemeanors

I’m a bit of a grammarian. Just a bit, though. I confess my use of commas can be rather haphazard. And, while I probably shouldn’t, I rather admire a good sentence fragment and use them whenever I want. ( see sentence #2 ) I can barely abide a run-on sentence though a longer-than-strictly-necessary sentence does my writer’s / … Continue reading →

A Funny Thing Happened

Not a laugh out loud kind of funny, either, but rather an oddity — something to make me shake my head and say, ‘hmmmm…’ I’ve been mostly unplugged lately. I’ve still managed to peak at the latest on Pinterest — boring.  I’ve viewed a smidge of the status updates on Facebook — equally mundane, though … Continue reading →

Careless Language & “Common” Usage

America comes stock-equipped with multi-cultured, richly layered distinctives. Heritage hails here from all over the world, whose “tired and poor, huddled masses, yearning to breathe free” call the US ‘home.’ If the dinners on our tables distinguish us — East coast seafood, Midwest comfort food, West Coast fusion food — then certainly our colloquialisms differentiate … Continue reading →

“Let Them Eat Cake!”

After finishing Freedom (a lovely Christmas present), Jonathan Franzen’s name remained on my reading radar. Browsing in a glorious bookshop in DC, Kramerbooks & Afterwords Cafe & Grill, I found a collection of his essays entitled How to Be Alone.  I tend to lose touch with the limits of my pocketbook whenever I walk into a bookstore, so of course … Continue reading →