April 2012
2 posts
The weird, gross, shocking root of a story
They say that writing a story is a lot like pulling teeth. I think they know a thing or two, whoever they may be. You sit down and have it planned out in your head. Open the computer. Open the program, adjust your coffee cup over the coaster. Turn your mouse pad so it’s straight. Adjust the chair. And when your space is perfect, you put fingers to the keyboard.
There’s a little nub...
4 tags
The Annoying Laugh
Book Review
Surprised by Laughter: The Comic World of C.S. Lewis
Terry Lindvall, Ph. D.
Thomas Nelson, 1996
Terry Lindvall’s Surprised by Laughter: The Comic World of C.S. Lewis is a brilliant title. What? The serious doctrinarian, the weighty theologian, delving into the realms of grief, repentance, conversion and evil, for goodness’ sake, has a funny side? I wish I had written it.
No, I...
February 2012
1 post
1 tag
Mercy Killing - Mercy Me
My daughter wrote her first college paper last weekend on “Euthanasia.” Her dad got sick when she turned 10.
“I wrote one in high school, do you think it’s still on your computer?”
I didn’t know. It wasn’t saved, turned out. I had no idea.
“It has to be five pages!”
She got it right in the first paragraph. “Last April my father died after eight years of a rare brain disease. Why should people have...
September 2011
2 posts
3 tags
Fallen, September 11, 2001
Fallen, September 11, 2001
by Francine Phillips
The air beckoned
As the fire threatened.
A wall of power and heat
Melting the structure of The Important Things -
My Starbucks mug,
My laptop,
My corner office.
The air beckoned
“Throw yourself from this pinnacle and angels will lift you up,”
lured the Evil One.
So I leapt,
Fell,
Exhilarated.
Heat on my face,
Cool loft on my...
Lost and Found
Surprised by Oxford: A Memoir by Carolyn Weber
Thomas Nelson 2011
The easy opening is to say that I was not surprised by Surprised by Oxford.
But that’s not entirely the truth. I love the writing of C.S. Lewis and was a little put off by the riff of his title, Surprised by Joy. Yes, the Oxford don wrote within the very walls of the same hallowed university, sat at the same pub benches, walked...
August 2011
1 post
5 tags
Mike at Sea
He sailed through life.
Careful preparation was his secret.
Checklists.
Survival was given every opportunity to prevail over
being a helpless speck on a wide, wild ocean.
He was careful.
But once underway, he sailed into the headwind,
preferring the sail to the rudder.
He didn’t like to tack.
Straight ahead.
Confident.
Capturing the wisps of air and current
and channeling them...
July 2011
2 posts
3 tags
Reconnecting Francine
There’s a screensaver on my monitor that I can’t decide if I love or hate. I don’t remember how I came to use it and I have no idea how I turn it off or change it. Computer functions such as these are beyond my patience to parse. Let’s just call it magic.
What happens is a photograph is pulled randomly from memory and dances across the screen for 10 seconds or so – a smiling face of a friend,...
7 tags
Obama/Shriver 2012
by Francine Phillips
It makes perfect sense to me. Joe Biden, no offense, can retire now, capping a significant career with leadership of the Senate. He offered the tie to the Old Guard that Obama needed to capture traditional voters the last time around. Thank you, goodbye.
Maria Shriver should be the Obama running mate in 2012. The charisma factor will shoot through the roof. Shriver is...
February 2011
1 post
1 tag
I’m Over Oprah
I’m reading a book from the Oprah Book Club. It’s a sad book, the story of misfits and misguided fits and the consequences of their actions, which are tragic – beautifully described, but tragic. In fact, it’s a lot like other Oprah Book Club books I’ve read. There’s a sense of obligation almost, like the reading lists in college or on Facebook. But you read it at arms length, letting in only...
January 2011
1 post
1 tag
Lose the Win Win
So, a new party has “won” the House. The party balance has shifted once again in what seems to be our default love of inbalance in political life. Chaos theory reigns. Take the Congressmembers, shake them up in a cup and scatter them across the White House lawn and they’ll somersault and bounce to a halt at random. Red States. Blue States. Scattered at random. I don’t really see a winner...
November 2010
1 post
1 tag
Election Day Dance with the Stars
It’s election day. Across America there are hopeful hearts beating hard and fast as candidates for school boards, fire districts, state offices, Congress and Senate think, Wow! This day could change my life. Secret smiles bubble up because, at the end of the day, anything can happen. No matter what the polls say, the commentators, your best friend, or your mother, the outcome of the day is going...
June 2010
1 post
3 tags
Seasonal Self-loathing
This year, a wreath of pastel eggs and rustic foliage crowns the hutch. On the shelves are dessert plates – yellow, green, blue, pink – each with a raised impression of running bunnies, chasing each other around the rims. For contrast, my daughter’s ceramic café plate in pomegranate red stands up next to the wreath. In her handwriting, the plate reads, “Laugh until your heart overflows…”...
April 2010
1 post
2 tags
8 new uses for overhead bins in airplanes
It was recently announced that Spirit Airlines will only allow carryons that fit under the seat in front of you and will be charging a fee of $20-$45 for use of those pesky overhead compartments that making boarding and deplaning take soooo long. After all, if everyone has to put everything in their suitcase, they’ll tip that weight limit in no time and have to pay an overweight fee. Or, without a...
March 2010
2 posts
4 tags
Dear Mom... originally a Vocablogita on...
Dear Mom,
I’ve been thinking a lot about you lately and thought I would catch you up on what’s going on in this part of the universe.
On more than one occasion, lately, I’ve heard your voice in my head when you were faced with moving from the house we grew up in and your home for 40 years. “But I’m going to miss my Von’s!” So white, middle-class, I used to think. That whole ownership mentality...
2 tags
Healthcare Reform Wish list
Thank the good God above that Congress took its first poke at the screwed up healthcare, health insurance, health delivery system here. I know that it’s a compromised, beat up, doesn’t go far enough and basically inexplicable bill. But it passed. And I know that a lot of committed and dedicated public servants spent many hours talking it through and making it happen and I am very grateful. I...
January 2010
1 post
3 tags
Three Little Words
A few years ago I got a birthday card that I just loved. It talked about those three little words that every woman wants to hear, then inside the card it spelled them out: “You’re not fat.”
O.K., O.K., maybe “I love you” would still win in some hearts, especially around Valentine’s Day, but when you reach a certain age, isn’t saying “You’re not fat” pretty much saying the same thing?
There is...
December 2009
2 posts
6 tags
Giving Nine a Ten
Maybe it’s because I’m Italian. Maybe it’s because I saw 8 1/2 in college and some other Fellini movies, or Scenes from a Marriage by Bergman. Or loved All That Jazz about Bob Fosse. (“It’s Showtime!”) Maybe it’s because I miss Rome. Not sure why, but I liked Nine.
And want to see it again.
The previews were intriguing and the hype on Oprah!...
5 tags
The Song and Dance of the Dissident Daughter
Intro: A few months ago I ran across a book by Sue Monk Kidd called The Dance of the Dissident Daughter: A Woman’s Journey from Christian Tradition to the Sacred Feminine. Was this the book I’d been looking for, the one that would at last give me a sister in my own journey? I asked on Facebook if I was the last woman on earth to discover this book and sassy Phyllis Mathis said,...
October 2009
2 posts
Pressing 0
Menus are hell.
I’m not talking about the bright colored, enticing ones - thick like BJ’s or TGIF’s or thin as a copied orange sheet at the Thai place.
Phone menus are hell.
Getting information by phone is no longer possible. I learned this when I was laid off from a job I loved last June. A folder of EDD (formerly known as the Unemployment Office) information was handed to...