October 27, 2013

Darlings, be advised:

For every five cooks who wish to knock out a wall, opening their kitchen to all and sundry, allowing said sundry to kibbutz, criticize or generally distract by telling long and fairly pointless shaggy dog stories, there are by my estimation at least two, maybe three, of us who’d rather be flayed alive than tear out a wall. Continue reading “Darlings Be Advised” →

In spring, the night sky is as vulnerable and bejeweled as a fledgling debutante. The would-be poet, with longings inchoate, gazes up through tender branches now fluttering small green flags. His heart lifts toward a moon drifting and dreaming as though it had forever to complete its circuit.

The gravitational power of an unfamiliar wistfulness pulls the poet, and his heart flies up and he with it, clutching at stars and sipping falling dew. Continue reading “Poet and Moon” →

Before I fall asleep at night — though God knows I can fall asleep during the day, walking to the post box — I read from an old Georgette Heyer mystery, or an Agatha Christie, or any “cozy” in which seemingly intelligent, smartly dressed Londoners motor down to the English countryside in a Duesenberg or Bentley in order to be murdered.

Though she doesn’t really pen cozies, Martha Grimes will do as well. She has, after all, created the impossibly sexy (in my opinion) Melrose Plant, who eschews his title (Earl of Caverness), yet drives a Bentley and serves as sometimes-sidekick to Richard Jury of Scotland Yard. Continue reading “More Escape” →