I’ve chosen trailblazers in literature, music, painting, political activism and medicine. Many communities lost their own notable...
Key West, A Movie Theater Movie, Kids in Cages, Mary Oliver
Key West Images I’m still vacationing in Key West, which is resplendent with memorable images, like the photo looking up at the island’s famous Banyan Trees, or the artful photo of “free” items arranged in front of a shot gun house. Key West is a place where photo-worthy pictures abound. [...]
Pat Taub
Obituary: The Final Writing Assignment
GUEST POST by JANET WEIL I’ve typed up many others’ documents in my time, but the single page printed in a strange reddish ink was a first for me: my father-in-law’s self-written obituary. This record of his life was too important to him to leave to others to put together. Robert “Bob” Weil was a gentleman of the old school, and [...]
Pat Taub
New Beginnings: Life Post-Lockdown
Spring’s arrival, with its warming temperatures, is perfectly timed with the gradual re-opening of our country. Many of us have now received both vaccination shots, allowing us to step into the outside world to make travel plans, tentatively dine indoors and exchange hugs with reunited loved ones. While initially the lockdown was a big jolt [...]
Pat Taub
Key West, Deb Haaland, “Hamnet” & More!
Key West Vacation I celebrated being fully vaccinated by scheduling a 6-week trip to Key West, where I’m luxuriating in the tropical temps, the ease of walking everywhere and feeling the sun on my face. Here are a few images from a recent walk: a sand sculpture, a lovely cemetery statue and the Margaret Truman launderette. When her father [...]
Pat Taub
Diana Athil: A Long Life of Inspiration and Joy
If you need inspiration and reassurance that old age is still a dynamic time and not a passage to be feared, then grab Diana Athill’s two memoirs. The first, Somewhere Towards the End, was written when she was 89. Her memoir, Alive, Alive Oh! was published when Athill was 98, three years before her death at 101 when she was working on [...]
Pat Taub
Celebrating the Older Woman’s Body: Interview with Jocelyn Lee, Photographer
“My mission is to create a radical empathy for the older body. I want to expand our understanding of beauty and sensuality, which is not confined to the young.” Jocelyn Lee’s new photography book, Sovereign, is the book older women have been waiting for: a book filled with photographs of nude aging women, proudly facing the camera [...]
Pat Taub
Flexible Problem Solving in the Age of Covid
GUEST POST by LISA SAVAGE As the mother of three grown children, I’ve had occasion to reflect on what I taught them that might be especially useful for weathering an ongoing public health crisis and the recession it caused. I became a public school teacher halfway through their childhood but even before that I was an “education mama” [...]
Pat Taub
Two Amazing Films, A Great Read & More!
A New Wonderful Documentary Last night I watched the Zoom premier of Natasha Mayers: an Un-Still Life, an exhilarating documentary about this beloved Maine artist. For decades Natasha has been creating political satire along with amazing three-dimensional images for local protests and 4th of July parades. She’s been arrested numerous times [...]
Pat Taub
Two Sets of Keys
GUEST POST by MICHAEL STEINMAN At the Malt Shoppe, circa 1950, the couple has two straws in the tall glass. Delicious. But what if you want your very own malted? Is that the end of the dream? When I began online dating (2005), I had old-fashioned goals. I’d escaped an abusive marriage and dreamed of a rewarding one while I [...]
Pat Taub
Texas Storm, Molly Ivins, Granddaughter Jane & More
Storm-Wrecked Texas Looking at photos of Texans, standing in the bitter cold, huddled under blankets, forming long lines for water and food, left me furious and heartsick. Have we become a third world country, where only the privileged are taken care of? The one redeeming factor to the Texas storm tragedy is that Ted Cruz was caught flying [...]
Pat Taub