iconic image of the street in NYC Photo Credit I can’t write a post on September 11, 2019 that doesn’t harken to September 11, 2001. I wasn’t in NYC that day. Nobody in my family worked in the Towers or as police or firefighters in NYC. One could say that I wasn’t directly affected by…
“Why”…Wednesdays
35. Why I Eat Candy
CANDY HOUSES Some people make gingerbread houses for the festive holiday spirit. My younger daughter and I make them for the delicious candy. As you can see from the photo above, I really load on the candy and I eat the whole thing. I’m writing this post a week after I told you (Anybody out there…
34. Why I Exercise a Lot
I LIKE TO GET MY ENDORPHINS ON I was never the best athlete growing up, but I like the way it feels to stay active. I played on the basketball team in high school, swam for the team in college, and play defense on my old-lady team now. Additionally, I’ve completed a few sprint triathlons…
33. Why and How Aspiring and Emerging Writers Should Think about PR
(Photo Credit: Ken Miyamoto’s 15 Ways to Stop Writer’s Block) Starting a career as a writer isn’t what it once was. Back in the day, if a person wanted to write a book, she would write a book, find an agent, get a publisher, see her book in print, and then get loads of letters…
32. Why I Remember Birthdays
Two days ago, I turned fifty. Last week, I started my celebrations when my whole family was in town. My sister drove in from Brooklyn. My mother flew in from Chicago. My aunt and uncle came up from Scarsdale. (Unfortunately, my father and stepmother and in-laws couldn’t come.) With about forty people, I enjoyed a…
31. Why I Ask Experts
I don’t know everything. When some people in my English department have questions about grammar, they come to me because I know a lot of the rules. I’ve learned them, over the years, as the person in charge of keeping our Conventions of Composition website up to date. Even so, some sentences leave me stumped….
30. Why I Loved My Internship
Being an intern wasn’t what I thought it would be. But when you think about it, how can we ever guess in advance about what we’ll learn and how we’ll grow? For my internship with Metamorphosis, I got to do several different projects, all of which helped me learn either about establishing and maintaining an…
29. Why I Love Teaching Different Age Groups
I’ve been teaching high-school aged kids for over twenty years, but this summer, a friend asked me to teach a class at the local retirement community. My first reaction was fear. What would happen, I wondered, if my students asked me questions I couldn’t answer? What if they knew more about the history of the…
28. Why I Love Grammar
…and YOU SHOULD LOVE GRAMMAR, TOO! I can’t believe how many people have the totally wrong idea that grammar is dull. Clearly, they’ve been looking at language backwards. S-D-R-A-W-K-C-A-B! Turn that thinking around. If you want to share an idea, you need to give it in a way that the other person can understand. That’s…
27. Why I Volunteered to Dance in Public
By the time you read this, my moment in the spotlight will have come and gone. Thank goodness. I’m not a terrific dancer. Let me backup to tell you how I ended up on stage in front of almost everyone at my school. Two Senior girls completed an independent study in choreography. All spring, they…