I’m a Mean One

Unless you grew up under a rock, you recognize this image from the incomparable How the Grinch Stole Christmas holiday special, characters by the inimitable Dr. Seuss, animation and direction by the peerless Chuck Jones. I am totally feeling the Grinch as he stares balefully down on Whoville right now. I’m sitting in a Starbucks and getting blasted by Christmas music. Note the date above. We...
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Fixin’ the World

Tonight at dinner, mimi and her companions got an ugly reminder that there are some folks out there who just don’t get it. The three of us were enjoying some gorgeous Kentucky weather at a sidewalk table of a Louisville pub. Next to us were two nicely-dressed women about our age doing the same. Later in the evening, our server, a darling law student at the U of L, came to us with a puzzled face,...
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Stop the Insanity

It’s FCAT week in Florida, which means several things:A)vomiting elementary school studentsB)stressed-out high schoolersC)overtaxed teachersD)all of the aboveIf you answered D, go to the head of the class. You see, when it’s standardized test week in the state of Florida, time slows (if not stops altogether), kids bail, and normally sane teachers kinda lose it a little. There’s just something...
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Orange Blossom Special

The key scene in Marcel Proust’s À la recherce du temps perdu, or Remembrance of Things Past, is the madeleine episode, where the smell and taste of a cookie transports the narrator back to his childhood. (You can see a cartoon version of this famous French scene in the Pixar film Ratatouille). This happens to me every spring when the orange trees bloom.When we first moved to Central Florida, we...
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Happy Valentine’s Day

It’s de rigeur for those of us who write for women to also write something about the girly holiday of Valentine’s Day. Why girly, I hear you ask? Because most of the noise surrounding this day issues from men who are not only expected to show up with roses and dish out major bucks for a romantic dinner á deux, but also being guilted into buying jewelry or making other grandiose gestures to...
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