By today's standards, childcare in the 70s and 80s would have gotten our parents arrested. I watch a lot of "body cam" police videos on YouTube (shut up it's fascinating) and I've seen a fair number of parents put in handcuffs for child abandonment. This one woman went to visit another apartment in the same apartment complex while her 13 year old was in charge of the 9 year old. They were both asleep. Ummmm...yeah. We lived …
So get this. Last night I wanted to look up the GoFundMe that got set up for Joe and me when we got hit with calamity in August 2023, so I Googled for it. Imagine my surprise when I found us on a site listing "Couples 'Dying Suddenly.'" What the fuck? I sent the link to Joe asking, "Are we ghosts?" He found it to be both shocking and hilarious, so he posted it on Facebook. He posted the link with: "But I'm not…
Well. The Olympics are on TV again. It's Day One. That means it's the 12th anniversary of my wholly unexpected, life-altering and remarkably inconvenient psychotic break . That fraught, violent week-long episode opened a chapter in my life that is still playing out in many ways. At the time I wrote in an essay called Behind Three Doors: "I went into the psych ward three times, under three different circumstances. The
first time I hav…
I just don't think I will ever be over what happened to Trayvon. I remember it like it was yesterday. I was crying for weeks when the court let Zimmerman off, citing "Stand Your Ground." Like...I'm thinking about it now, and I'm still incredulous. He was just 17. He wasn't doing anything. He had Skittles and iced tea. He was walking home. And a monster stalked him and killed him. And a Florida jury found Zimmerman not gu…
My brother Michael Lombardi (different fathers) is a handsome, talented actor. The first time I realized it for real, I'd made the trek from Boston to New York to see him in an off-Broadway production of Danny and the Deep Blue Sea. From Wikipedia: Set in the Bronx, the story revolves around Danny and Roberta who strike
up a conversation in a bar.
"He is a brooding, self-loathing young man who resorts more to violence
than reason; sh…
Can't say I saw this one coming, guys. I found out the other day that my stepfather has a daughter. My stepfather has a daughter. It would appear that, apparently, I am the last to know that Louie fathered a daughter before he met my mom. And The Daughter's half-sister reached out to me over Facebook last night. It was in a post about Louie's old store, The Karmel Korn Shop. I posted: "Do you guys think you can post any memories …
Joe and I have been to look at a few places in our ongoing apartment hunt. It's comforting that we have until September, but we're looking to move in the spring, before it gets too hot. Happily, there are available properties that meet most of our wish list! We haven't seen anything that knocks us out, though. There was this little three-bedroom house in Arlington that had some amaaaaazing floors. It was so cool. But somebody snatched…
I just Unfriended my mother-in-law. I have mostly been off Facebook since October, only popping back in now and then because I miss seeing what my friends have been up to, and photos of the kids and pets and culinary creations. But. As we are all shaken, horrified, devastated by the murder of another good citizen. I checked her Facebook. Maybe there'd be pictures of the pups, I don't know. And. There was an image. It showed an array of whi…
"A loaf of bread, a container of milk, and a stick of butter.”
My husband is Joe Kowalski , an imaginative Gen X polymath and among the most talented people I know. I learned the term "polymath" from Hal Sparks. From Google AI search: "A polymath is a person with deep expertise across multiple, diverse fields, driven by relentless curiosity and the ability to synthesize knowledge from different domains to foster innovation and creative problem-solving." My good friend Diana (she's all ov…
Update January 22: OMG it's done. I love it. Do you love it? I was going to delete this post, but I want everyone to know that coder Lasantha Bandara is a fucking genius, and fast. Like...really fast. ROCK STAR. Update January 21: So I spent a day or two looking at about 50 other themes. But I don't think a theme exists that is as perfect as YouMag for my particular blog. I guess I just love it! I re-installed it today after all, ha ha. Bu…
Happy Sunday, dear fine readers. I was thinking. I am lucky enough to be surrounded by incredibly talented artists. And I haven't really written about them! What, why not! So today I'm going to dedicate a little time to doing just that. First up—my mom, JoAnna Lombardi . My beautiful and talented mom started painting in her forties. First watercolors, then oils. Lots of blues and R&B musicians—she painted Stevie, Jimi, Billie Holiday, …
Now here's the thing. I don't do this for any kind of ostentatious putting-on of airs. I'm not vain at all. Just the opposite. You can ask my psychiatrist. Or my therapist. No, I am occasionally Googling myself to see if Google has had any sweet sweet mercy on # Blogger and indexed our # blogs at all. Because we would really like Google to index our blogs. Lack of blog indexing is a frequent topic of discussion in certain web forums. …
Songs in the Key of Life was one of my favorite records practically my whole life. From the age of 7 I'd say. My parents have great taste in music. My favorite is Side Four--it's a double album. Isn't She Lovely Joy Inside My Tears Black Man Ngiculela - Es Una Historia I Am Singing If It's Magic As Another Star I want "If It's Magic" played at my funeral. Damn, Stevie.
Not that I've been on it much lately, so me deleting my account won't mean anything to Pinterest. I created my Pinterest account when we first moved from Comm Ave to Lower Allston, as a kind of Look Book for home decor ideas.I also had some pins of 19th Century dinner rings--I had one once and thought I'd get another some day. But now it seems Pinterest is already chock-a-block with AI slop. Why? What are they thinking? That was a pu…
"But you used to write about politics..." Yeah. At one time I did, yeah. Here in Blogger, back to 2012. You can find all those passionate, researched entries by searching on "politics" in the search field. In my Diaryland blog ,
I have essays from the 2000, 2004 and 2008 elections--that is to say,
from the Hanging Chad to the Provisional Ballot to (sweet relief) YES WE
CAN! I don't have any entries from 2020 to July 2025 …
Won't Have to Do This For a Little Bit
-
I'll be on vacation next week. Before that happens, join me tonight for Richard
Spisak's Stone Soup feature later tonight. Let's get two Wednesdays of fun
...
24 minutes ago
.jpg)
