What I Find Fascinating

18 Jan at 12:24 am

William Park’s Take on The 100 Greatest Films of All Time

Weeks of preparation and then the crush of the holidays themselves (not to mention the incapacitation of a full-length brace on my leg) kept us from writing our annual Christmas letter. Bill’s part of The Letter is anticipated far and…

30 Dec 2022

I Must Admit…

Taking Stock

[N.B. A briefer earlier version was on my FB page…] I must admit it’s finally dawned on me that I’m getting—am already—old. Curious feeling. Not altogether real. But I had evidence of it on Christmas when I attempted to cook…

11 Dec 2022

Resources for A Happy and A Merry Caritas

Reflections

Musing about gifts to the recalcitrant, I stumbled upon something really super. It just struck me that giving someone a donation to charity as a Chanukkah or Christmas present is giving twice—immediately to the friend or family member and then…

9 Dec 2022

Stuff

Taking Stock

You see in our ‘70s-built house, my study is the room furthest from the source of warmth, a furnace in the garage. The designers of the house forgot about efficiently delivering heat to rooms down the hall. Bill’s study, adjoining…

5 Dec 2022

Win-Win HolidayGiving

Taking Stock

Yesterday was Christmas Shopping Day at our house—principally for Bill. We ordered the red-wrapped two- and three-pound boxes of dark chocolate Nuts & Chews he’s sent to family since Mrs. See first shmooshed them out. All over the country, Park…

23 Nov 2022

Maybe the Best Pumpkin Pie You Ever Et

In the Kitchen, at the Table

Made from a real winter squash, not a can…imbued with American bourbon…crunchy with pecans and caramelized sugar…a holiday confection fresh from the earth—and my mother and grandmother. Squash Custard Filling: (8 to 9 servings) 2-1/2 cups pureed baked butternut, cushaw,…

17 Nov 2022

Confession Regarding Muriel Rukeyser’s Garbage Can

Looking Over My Shoulder

Gene and I were newly married, newly moved to Manhattan. Gene’s favorite U.C. Berkeley philosophy professor and his wife were in town and we wanted to give a dinner party in their honor. It would be my first. But I’d…

1 Nov 2022

“Head Erect and Tail Over the Dashboard!”

Aging Ain’t for Sissies

A week ago, early in the morning as grandson Cameron was sailing off to school on his bike, in response to my calling after him, “Have a marvelous day!” the young scholar waved and called back, “Have a marvelous day!” Surely I…

20 Oct 2022

Invaluable Cooking Tools — #1 & #2

In the Kitchen, at the Table

What with the world in such tatters—actually one shouldn’t make light of it—this morning I’m moved to treat of mundane matters. What is more mundane than the fact that I still can’t find my reading glasses…and that a poor bedeviled…

16 Oct 2022

Surprise, Surprise!

Taking Stock

Suddenly it struck me yesterday as I was wending my way around the bedroom—“wending” because I had to be careful to step around the overflowing suitcases flopped open on the floor…what with this siege of COVID (I write this mid-October,…