Brave on paper
I had no idea why Dad was so grumpy. They were just leaves–piles of them that he had spent the last hour raking onto a big, blue tarp and hauling off into the woods at the edge of our yard. While my father raked, my brother and I chased each other around the yard, diving, […]
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Those nutty Storm Troopers are in the Halloween spirit! It’s a classic skeleton theme for the beleaguered proletariat of the Death Star—smart, simple, something they can easily change out of in the event that Rebel forces attack or they spill punch on themselves at the annual Intergalactic Death Star Halloween Spooktacular party. Any droid worth […]
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Several weeks ago I was walking through Boston’s Beacon Hill neighborhood when I came upon an unusual window box. Six Star Wars Storm Trooper figurines dolled up in Hawaiian leis and grass skirts stood a bed of grassy turf. I wrote about this pleasant and playful disruption to a neighborhood known for its stuffy conformity […]
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When I walked by in July, the imperial Storm Troopers stood defiantly atop the spongy, green terrain of their window box. Each one clutched plastic white spears—little sticks topped with red, white, and blue styrofoam stars. They were those cocktail accessories, the kind you use to stake cheese cubes and strawberries. The Storm Troopers sported […]
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We’re all brave somewhere. I’m brave on paper. A woman friend of mine recently confronted a man on an airplane. This seems equal parts courageous and unadvisable. You’re already sardined into the equivalent of a flying Dairy Whip canister with nothing between one another but flimsy pieces of plastic and a bag containing six off-brand […]
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Even though I didn’t know how to play any type of jazz instrument, when I was a junior in high school I decided I was going to join jazz band. Ours was a fairly typical suburban high school arts program: understaffed, under appreciated, underfunded. The light board for our school’s auditorium was run by a […]
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