Discussions about pen names versus real names keep coming up. I use my real name, not merely because it is unique in this country, but also because my name has a history in the comics biz. So why not let people who know me learn about my novels? I’ve used…
I just went through my box of oldest letters. Fifty years ago I wrote a lot to the editors of DC Comics, which at the time was still hiding under the name National Periodical Publications, Inc. I also wrote to the subscription department. As was their habit back then,…
Today is Father’s Day, a day we never celebrated in our family because my parents both thought it was a commercial construct and not a legitimate holiday. I have to thank them yet again for raising me without creating these unnecessary situations that so many people find filled with angst,…
It’s not a smartphone, so it must be a dumbphone, right? But look at all the charming little bits and pieces, each of them rather smart, that make up a conventional landline phone: Inside this phone is an entire factory. It could be Gary, Indiana, in its heyday (but without…
Some immigrants to America expect American culture to bend and change for them. Others embrace American culture, even if there are elements in it they may not like. If they do not, they tend to remain secreted away in ethnic enclaves where they don’t have to speak or write English…
I was away from home for a week, having a very fine time attending the San Francisco Ring Cycle. On my return, I exited the restricted part of the airport and found my husband holding up a sign as if he was a limo driver seeking a passenger: For nearly…
Every year at the beginning of the tax season, our AARP Tax Aide outposts in the public libraries are mobbed. These free tax preparation service sites are first come, first served, which enables us to do far more tax returns in a day than if we took appointments. That’s because…
I have a confession to make. It’s harmless, so don’t get excited. I am one of those women who likes particular tissue box designs. We buy the patterns we like, and then we save the cardboard box when the tissues are gone. Then we restock the same box with new…
I have always been an extremely dutiful observer of the written social niceties. I write Christmas and holiday cards. I write bread-and-butter notes. I wrote my great-uncle in the nursing home, and my aunt in another nursing home, and my cousin in her retirement home, too. I keep in contact…
Recently, teen suicides are in the news. Gay teen suicides especially, but also other teen suicides. These are said to be the result of persistent bullying. Is the school social world is any more poisonous today than it was almost fifty years ago when I was a favorite target of…
