Every week is a history lesson: Two writers in my memoir classes marched in Selma, a writer in one class was at Woodstock, and this one was at the 1963 MLK march in DC.

  Seeing Eye dogs are so hip that they all get tattoos. That’s how they roll, dude. I’m sure you’re assuming that my four Seeing Eye dogs all opted for tattoos of hearts with the letters b-e-t-h inscribed inside. Wrong. My Seeing Eye dogs all had tattoos long before I met them. The Seeing Eye […]

Awhile back I wrote that I was starting an entry-level improv class at IO (formerly ImprovOlympic). Last Saturday I completed my eighth and final session. Of this go-round, anyway—I may take the next level later this year. It wasn’t what I’d expected, which seems completely logical, come to think of it. I—like probably a lot […]

Teachers in Mayville, Wisconsin had read my children’s book Hanni and Beth: Safe &Sound  aloud to their students before I arrived there last week, so when I showed up without Hanni, the star of that book, a few of the kids were – quite reasonably– disappointed. Hmm. Might be good to start my presentation with […]

Among the least important but most acute annoyances of modern life are the vocal patterns of young people. These patterns include the phenomenon known as vocal fry, where the last word of a sentence just sort of evaporates into the back of the speaker’s mouth. Check out this video for annoying examples. Worse yet is the thing […]