“Zeus, Hera, and…” I paused and glanced at my glass of red wine, “Dionysus.” We were playing a game: five seconds to name three things in a category. I had Greek gods. “Hold on a second there,” my husband said. I thought he might be under the misapprehension that I had used the Roman name…
My childhood church was on Dylann Roof’s short list. During his trial, it was revealed that Roof had conducted research about churches in South Carolina’s Richland County and identified five possible targets for his murderous rampage. He later selected Charleston, in part because he had heard that the city had a large Black population. The…
For a while in the mid-1970s, my most reliable companion was a round yellow Panasonic Toot-a-Loop “bracelet” radio. Shaped like a lopsided donut, it twisted open on the fat side to reveal its AM tuning dial. While I sometimes put the plastic loop around my wrist, I was more likely to carry it like a…
Who can be serene in a country where both the rulers and the ruled are without principle? The remembrance of my country spoils my walk-– Henry David Thoreau As with much else, you could I suppose just blame the Eighties. It was 1989 and there were perhaps five or six of us…
For most summers in my life I’ve worked at my parents’ gift store on Martha’s Vineyard. The store is part of the only major tourist attraction in town, the famous colorful clay cliffs, where there are about a half dozen stores, all owned and operated by members of my tribe, the Aquinnah Wampanoag. I’m used…
It’s been a couple weeks and the news cycle has moved on, but I can’t get Ghazala Khan’s face out of my mind. Her mouth is a shimmering perfection, neither smiling nor frowning. Her frameless glasses magnify her eyes, and her dark eyebrows float above them. Her pink cheeks have no sharp angles. Her blue…
It is a truth universally acknowledged that writers often use LGBT characters to make well-worn storylines feel contemporary. So it should not be much of a spoiler that there is a transgender narrative at the center of the bestselling novel, Eligible, Curtis Sittenfeld’s cheeky summer update of Pride and Prejudice. Jane Austen has been adapted…
I’m a carrier for Maple Syrup Urine Disease, which, despite its rather charming name, has some serious implications for people with two copies of the genetic mutation. Someone with MSUD can’t digest any protein without suffering from debilitating seizures that lead to brain damage and eventually death. In order to live with MSUD, people need…