Mosquitoes Create Jobs
It’s been a year since I arrived in the northeastern portion of Louisiana, a wilderness and a wonderland to a northerner who has never lived south before. I’ve been introduced to crawfish or “mudbugs” and the proper way to eat them. This involves grasping the outside shell of the tail joint firmly with a thumb […]
Eastern Tiger Swallowtail
Eastern Tiger Swallowtail “Coincidences of pattern is one of the wonders of nature.” –Vladimir Nabokov The same evening he plugged himself into an amplifier and lit up with the neon of his young manhood, there, all the time in the background, as she searched for a place to rest with the pressure of metamorphosis […]
The Morgue, the Merrier
Satchmo, of course; the Marsalis family, naturally, even Ann Rice, and her vampirish underground. But me living in Louisiana? You’ve got to be kidding! I got here on subways and BART trains, sidewalks, public parks, and noise made by people, not insects whining for hours in the summer heat loud enough to drown out a […]
On Eastlake Road Thinking About Marie Richard
I’ve passed through a rite of motherhood that has spanned some twenty years. No more deadlines, meetings, no project emails that must be answered. I’ve retired from the every day world to enter a different one. And with the gift of quiet has come clarity. What do I want to do now? I’ve always wanted […]
Welcome to the Sterlington, Louisiana Dirt Track Races
Never in my wildest dreams would I have imagined I’d be living in the rural south. When I say never, I really mean never. I’m a city girl whose horizon has always been shaped by buildings, never trees; secondly, I’m a Jewish girl, which means that large urban centers are the places where the majority […]
Sterlington or Bust
The deed is done. The movers drove up yesterday in an 80 foot truck, the kind you see in your rear view mirror barreling down the freeway and decide to merge into the right hand lane quick. Warren and Richard stormed through my boxes, wrapped furniture in pads, placed inventory stickers on everything and drove […]