Author: Jo-Anne
Out of the Mouths of Babes
A little more than a year ago, I decided to become a Silver Fox. I finally found a cooperative hairdresser, cropped and spiked my already short hair, and never dyed it again. Gone were the days of henna red, streaky blonde, and blah brown. I wanted to see what me real color looked like after so many years of living in hair incogni...Read More
Opinion: How Sam Levenson Got Me In Trouble
It started with a heartwarming story on the NBCNews.com page on May 31. It was a story about an American doctor in Ethiopia, coincidentally or not coincidentally Jewish, who was working with a Catholic hospital to save lives. The story, linked here, talked about Dr. Rick Hodes’ work with the Mother Theresa Center in Addis Aba...Read More
Opinion: Roll Call
Charlotte, Daniel, Olivia, Josephine,Madeline, Catherine, Chase, Ana,Jesse, James, Dylan, Grace, Jack,Emilie, Caroline, Noah, Avielle,Jessica, and Benjamin, and Allison.Have you met Lauren, Rachel, Cassie, Steve, Corrie, Kelly, Matt, Daniel, Dan, Rachel, Isaiah, John and Kyle? Although you lived in different parts of the country,And were at differe...Read More
How I Got To Vote (November, 2012)
When the storm started and the lights went out, I lighted the variety of scented, Yahrzeit, and votive candles I had purchased (hardware stores in Hoboken, NJ have never heard of utility candles. I bet they won’t make that mistake again). My five years of training in Florida kicked in. I had twelve gallons of water delivered...Read More
In Honor of My 62nd Birthday
When we were young,62 was old.It was twice as old as the people we trusted.Three times as old as we were ourselves.Older than our parents were.As old as our grandparents.But here I am.And I only remember that I am old when I look in the mirror.Or someone offers me a seat on the subway.Unlike the lady in the poem, I do not wear purple.Purple is an u...Read More
Deus Ex Machina
After thirty-five years of marriage, I am finally having an affair with a machine. No, not that kind of machine. Nor is it darling Data from “Star Trek,” or tender Robin Williams as the “Bicentennial Man.” For our thirty-fifth anniversary, I passed on my husband’s suggestion of a diamond necklace and opted ...Read More
My Mother's New Economy
I grew up in the Great Depression. The fact that the actual event happened twenty years before my birth had little to do with the way I was raised. My parents never left the Depression mentality behind. We were raised to “waste not” whether we wanted to or not. In our house, frugality was next to goodliness and excess was not even on th...Read More
A Shared Story: Going Out On A Date, Circa 1965
Today we were discussing “Virgin pins” on Facebook. Don’t ask me why we were discussing this arcane item of jewelry, but we were and we’ve been determined that there is probably little need for a Virgin anything in today’s society. Sadly, we seem to have left formality and propriety behind in dress and manners, a...Read More
A SHARED STORY: Automat-ically speaking
I just googled Horn and Hardart's, and according to Wikipedia (which one should never be used as an authoritative source, still), Horn and Hardart's was a Philadelphia institution, just like me. Now, I never knew that, in all the years that I went there as a kid. I just knew that, for my family, going to Horn and Hardart's was an ant...Read More