I drove out to New Town Square today to visit my great-aunt Anne. This is not the first time I’ve written about visiting her, as it is always a bittersweet experience. When I view my time with her from one angle, I can recognize what a lovely and fortunate thing is it that [...]

The latest episode of Fork You is up (we’re just churning them out these days) and it’s a good one.  In it we blend the traditions of both Judaism and Christianity to bring you a little bit from the Easter table and a bit more from a Seder spread.  The ham comes first, followed by [...]

On Homelessness
by Leana McClellan
She is only five,
my child who stands rooted
watching the homeless man pace.
He shakes fists at the sky
howls curses that jolt her
though she doesn’t understand the words.
His clothes are torn to fringe
like a performer in a lunatic rodeo.
A mini voyeur in Cabbage Patch sweats
she looks for him everyday on our vacation.
He eats, arranges [...]

The Philadelphia Film Festival has arrived and so I am going to see four movies in the next two days. Oh, how I love it!
1. The Girl With the Weight of the World in Her Hands, Indigo Girls (Nomads, Indians, Saints)
2. Heaven’s Here on Earth, Tracy Chapman (New Beginnings)
3. We Can Talk, [...]

Last week I wrote about the CVS at the corner of 19th and Chestnut and how I always imagined that that intersection would be the set for the play of my life. Here’s another piece of the story of why I am attached to that spot.
During my childhood, my mom would bring my sister and [...]

Five years ago today, my grandmother died. She was 86 years old and ready to go. She had lived through the deaths of her father, mother, one child, the aunt who raised her, a husband, a brother, a sister, multiple friends, assorted aunts/uncles/cousins and another husband. She was tired. But it [...]

Last Friday night I went to Tria with my friend Georgia, to help her spend a gift certificate that her boyfriend had given her. We had a couple of glasses of amazing wine, shared a salad and panini and talked for several hours straight. It was quite lovely.
The salad was baby arugula, beets, [...]

I dropped mention of this into last night’s post, but the latest and greatest episode of Fork You is up.  Just in time for egg dying season, we get a question about how to hard boil eggs and share everything we know about the subject (in Scott’s case, that’s fairly minimal).
Later this week we’ll have [...]

Saturday morning, just after 11 am, my cellphone rang.  It was my sister, calling to say that she and Green Mountain Grass were leaving soon and would be driving up to Philly for the day.  The bus is still busted and is hanging out in Maryland being repaired, but the bass player’s very generous parent [...]