She no longer knows where she is — believing herself to be back in her homeland, whence she fled from the Nazis many years ago, and yet hoping to return to the United States at some point. A younger, dear acquaintance of hers — my age, about — was visiting with her recently, in the … Read more
When I was 21 or 22, and living in Chicago in my post-college confusions and miseries, I asked my friend Ann (an artist) a question that perhaps would have been more appropriate coming from someone much younger than myself. I asked her when she had known — known — that what she felt for her … Read more
The Giants will play the Phillies this afternoon, in Game 6 of their thrilling National League championship series. My heart hurts — okay, mostly because someone very dear to me is very ill — and I choose to think, when I can, of baseball. There is another game today, and no one knows who will … Read more
In his autobiography, Ben Franklin tells how, as a young man, he carried rolls of paper to his printshop in a wheelbarrow. The point — as with so many of his actions — was self-publicity: He made sure to do the wheelbarrowing when the streets were full of potential customers, so they could see what … Read more
Had the great pleasure of attending last night’s San Francisco Giants game with Bert Steinberg, whose license plate says something like “I [Heart] Bsebal.” Everyone who works at PacBell Park (weird to type out that corporate name — what strange times we live in) seemed to know him. Bert has filled out a scorecard for … Read more