Teenager in Sudan

I wrote a piece about traveling with my son to Sudan. I was hoping it would be like the trip I took with his sister when she was younger, but it turned out quite differently. The essay was published by Your Teen Magazine, a publication for parents of teenagers. Bonding With My Son In Africa?…

I Won a Talent Contest

Some thoughts on winning Newton Has Talent 2018 (adult division) last night with my pal Emily Prenner: Didn’t fit in the night deposit box at the bank 1. It was fun! It’s great to play music with people and especially when you’re clicking on the same wavelength. We had conversations that went: -Let’s audition with Carole…

Life is a Sitcom

Sometimes I write essays and sometimes they get published. Sometimes they don’t and they sit in my hard drive until I share them with you here. Here’s one that seemed like a great premise a year or more ago but seems a tad optimistic today (and the references are getting stale). I still like it…

Newton Family Singers sing Bob Marley

I wrote about playing music with the Newton Family Singers band last month. If the timing of this seems crazily off, it’s because the contents of this post (and more!) first appeared in my monthly email newsletter. If you subscribe, you can get more writings like this delivered straight to your inbox and not miss a thing. Sign…

Happy Hannukah

This year we celebrated Hannukah (spell check tells me I’m doing it wrong, but this is how it was spelled when I was growing up and I have a hard time breaking the habit. The “chabit”?) If the timing of this seems crazily off, it’s because the contents of this post (and more!) first appeared…

Parking meter hack

Relentlessly helpful! On their #amwriting podcast, KJ Dell’antonia and Jessica Lahey urge people to be “relentlessly helpful.” That’s the way to get people to share your posts, forward your email newsletters (hint hint) and gain new readers. If the timing of this seems crazily off, it’s because the contents of this post (and more!) first appeared in my…

Shut downs are not for Democrats

Of course they caved. With a shutdown of the government looming, Democrats insisted that they needed a resolution for DACA and funding for CHIP. The first would settle the immigration status of children who arrived illegally into the US and the second would cover health insurance for millions of low income children. The Republicans offered…

Guitar tunes

Part of the fun of NFS is developing a repertoire of songs that everyone in my family knows. When I was a kid, my sisters and I knew all songs from The Sound of Music because we saw that movie on television every year. With NFS, our kids are singing along weekly to Johnny Cash, or Paul…

Playing in a Band

For the past 7 years, I’ve been playing guitar and other instruments in the band for the Newton Family Singers. How did I join a band in my forties?! If the timing of this seems crazily off, it’s because the contents of this post (and more!) first appeared in my monthly email newsletter months ago. If…