When you have kids or grandkids, in this day of iPhone photos and videos, you are ALWAYS comparing pictures of the little ones with your friends and the people you meet. And, of course, your kids (or grandkids) are the most beautiful ones of all. This thought reminds me of being in the hospital and giving birth to my own son thirty-five years...

I’m still in the hospital. I may have some radiation treatment, not because I have cancer, which I don’t, but because they had to leave a portion of the meningioma in my brain, and radiation will sterilize it and prevent it from growing again. Not all meningiomas are benign, but mine is.

I read a lot of fiction, and I can tell you this: Truth is stranger than any plot I've ever come across. I recently read two novels that centered around art theft, and learned that famous artworks aren't stolen for collectors, they're used as collateral by (mainly Russian and Eastern European) criminals. Then I read in the New York Times about...

The baseball season is here and as usual, all the fans I know are in despair about their respective teams (since one of them has to win every game--there are no ties in baseball--you'd think SOMEONE would be happy, but nobody seems to be). In many ways, baseball is a metaphor for life, and this is best expressed in movies about the sport. Some...

The current papacy is actually an extension of the old Roman Empire. The bishops of Rome took over the administration of the church using the governing methods of the Romans. As the Empire fell, that government became the curia (governing body) of the Catholic church. The pope is the "Pontiflex Maxiums," a Roman term meaning "great...

Andy showed up at the grocery store, and now Joe has shown up as well. We go to a local discussion group on Tuesday nights, and right now we're reading and discussing the mythologist Joseph Campbell. The last time we were there, Whitley kept seeing a man in a 3-piece suit and fedora standing in the corner. He was curious because this outfit was...

You may think you've had some odd experiences (especially if you've had VISITOR experiences), but I think something that happened to me is right up there at the top. I woke up to find several faces peering down at me, asking me questions like, "What's your name?" "What date is it today?" "Who's the President?," and...

I am just now getting over what I call "The Grunge." It's not the flu, it's something else--a hacking cough that keeps your spouse (and the neighbors) up all night. It's going around like wildfire out here (in Los Angeles, we take the word "wildfire" seriously: we have the wildfire season in the fall when the Santa Anas blow...

I've written before about stinky aliens, but I just got some interesting information about flower-scented ghosts. I was chatting with someone after a meeting, and somehow the topic of ghosts came up. He told me this story. He was riding in his car one day with his brother, when he noticed a strong smell of flowers filling the car. He couldn't...

Seven years ago, I wrote a diary called Evil Corn. Now I'm addressing Evil Wheat. After I discovered I'm a Type II diabetic, I lost 100 pounds (took me 3 years!) on a low-carb diet, and I still treat wheat products the way other people treat alcohol or chocolate--I think carefully before I indulge. Despite this, I used to scoff at all the...

I'm writing this after opening my Christmas presents, and getting some things I didn't like, some things I'm indifferent to, and some things I really love. In other words, a typical Christmas morning. Over the years, I've decided that males buying presents for the females in their lives is one of the situations that is most fraught with failure...

Christmas is a feeling, more than anything. Whether or not we celebrate the date of Jesus' birth in the right month (we don't) or if the Bible describes the scene correctly (most theologians say it doesn't), we want to feel happy and in a giving mood at this time of year. Christmas decorations and lights help with this--they're like a...

Whitley and I just celebrated our 42nd wedding anniversary. It's kind of hard to believe we've been together so long: I realized that we've been married to each other for over half our lives. We've had our fights (who hasn't?), but we're not tired of each other yet. I was a dumb young girl when I met Whitley, so I consider myself lucky, not...

Whitley and I love cabaret, especially chanteuses singing the Great American Song Book. They closed our favorite venue for this in New York City, so now we're searching out new places to hear those wonderful old songs. We went to Disney Hall to hear the great singer Barbara Cook last night, but first we went to lunch with a friend who is about...