I can feel my molecules. At least, that’s how it seems. The two plastic prongs in my nostrils smell, inexplicably, like cold lo mein. Thick oxygen, carried on water, tunnels into the crevices of my skull, down my throat, blowing into the little Fibonacci flowers inside my lungs. I can’t tell if I am sleepy … Read more
I’m watching Terminator Eleventeenth: Cyborgs Can Age, Too, petting Molly in the 3 a.m. darkness. I tested positive for COVID three weeks ago. I do not think I should still be in this shape. I think maybe in the morning I will go see my primary care doc. But I am so tired and I’ve … Read more
Some things you might not have known: Nick Soutter knew ABBA lyrics. A lot of them. He sang them aloud with his children in his VW bug convertible with the top down. He made the best canned liverwurst tacos you ever could taste. Striding into court in the late 1970’s and early ‘80’s his brown … Read more
(NOTE: At the time of writing, Mary is seven, Ren is four, Eden is just shy of her first birthday. Location: Tilty-Floored Farmhouse. It’s their break from school. I’m working from home while caring for the kids.) MONDAY 8 a.m. Content the children with snacks and cartoons, take a cup of coffee and the laptop … Read more
I don’t mind telling you that I have been fangirling on Rep. Park Cannon since long before she single-handedly enraged the entire GOP establishment by politely knocking on a door. In the summer of 2017, my daughter Mary wrote to me from camp. That’s it, that’s the sentence. In nine years of summer camp, she … Read more
She was never a devoted mother, but she was a dutiful one, and that’s plenty hard enough. The tiny, grey tiger-striped tabby with the perfect pink nose appeared on the feeding station Cat Cam in the middle of a late-winter snow, standing on her hind legs to investigate the heated cat house we’d placed out … Read more
Buster was a good boy, even if he did rip the flesh of my arm from my inner elbow to the cuticles of my thumb and forefinger. It wasn’t his fault. He had never known love. And, also, I took the mackerel away. I began my departure with a rug, the one Ducky had given … Read more
SOUTTER, Nicholas Multi-Lingual Attorney, Adventurer Nicholas Benedict Soutter of Colorado Springs, Colorado; Wellesley, Massachusetts; and Santa Barbara, California, died November 22, 2020 after a brief illness. Soutter was born May 31, 1941, in Boston, Massachusetts. He was the son of Dr. Lamar Soutter, M.D., founding dean of the University of Massachusetts Medical School, war hero, … Read more
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It was an unlikely friendship. Valerie and I met when our husbands were stationed at Quantico. Phil had spent the prior ten years gently encouraging adorable young officer candidates to come to the realization they were not fit to serve in his Corps. My husband had only weeks earlier managed to squeeze his way past … Read more