On my recent trip around the world I made a “Best Of” list as I traveled, whimsically thinking that if I could combine these qualities from other countries with what I believe to be the “Best Of” the USA (technology, music, entertainment), it would be my own personal Shangri-La. Australia had the best yogurt I ever tasted and the most stunning sunsets. New Zealand had the friendliest people and an incredible variety of spectacular scenery. Vietnam had the cheapest prices. Cambodia had the best ancient ruins at Angkor Wat. Thailand had gorgeous beaches, amazing food, good prices, a peace-loving people, incredible spirituality, and lovely tropical weather. Bali had the most beautiful temples and the loveliest handcrafts. In Zimbabwe, the people exhibited an amazing stoicism and an always-smiling, gentle nature, despite the fact that their economy is falling apart and they live under the thumb of an insane, corrupt dictator. In Tanzania it was the animals on safari that took my breath away and in Zanzibar it was the intense colors of the fabrics worn by the women. The Swiss Alps deserve special mention, but for Europe in general, the culture and history impressed me most, along with the public transportation system – especially the trains.

Upon my return home I pulled out my list and compared it to Sarasota, Florida, where I have decided to live for the time being. Surprisingly, it held up fairly well in comparison. It has lovely beaches; great culture; friendly, welcoming people; reasonable prices; beautiful sunsets; and a great downtown with a full complement of services. The only things it lacks are mountains and a decent transportation system, and it can’t really be faulted on the transportation issue because there isn’t decent public transportation anywhere in this country – even New York pales in comparison to the train, subway and bus systems in Europe. But yesterday I discovered that there may be hope for a better transport system in this country after all. Read the rest of this entry »

There’s a new book on the market, “Going Gray:What I Learned about Beauty, Sex, Work, Motherhood, Authenticity, and Everything Else That Really Matters,” by Anne Kreamer. At 49, Kreamer made the decision to stop coloring her hair and set out to discover the practical implications of going gray. Would men still find her attractive? Would her gray hair be a handicap in the job market?

This is a very timely issue for me. My mother’s hair started turning white at a very young age and I definitely have her genes. When I began to go gray some years ago, I started coloring my hair. It’s not something I liked doing – I just felt I was too young to have gray hair, so every three weeks I cracked open another box of hair color and spent two hours applying the messy cream, waiting for the color to take, and shampooing out the glop. That was fine, until I quit my job and headed off to backpack around the world for six months. When my roots started to show I was in Bangkok. In a country of black-haired people, Read the rest of this entry »

On Thanksgiving Day I was sitting at the dinner table, trying to find room in my overstuffed stomach for the apple and pumpkin pies that our hostess was carving, when the subject turned to computers and technology. That led us to talk about a recent seminar sponsored by the NY Times where it was proposed that the millennial generation (those born between 1977 and 1997) is changing the way we get our news, read books, etc. THAT led us to discuss the differences between the baby boom generation (to which those of us at the dinner table all belong) and the millennial generation (who are, by and large, children of baby boomers). There was a HUGE difference of opinion on this subject. Some of us at the table felt that members of this younger generation are self-indulgent, materialistic, and want everything handed to them on a silver platter, NOW!

I have a much different view. As a member of the baby boom generation, I was a child of the 50′s and 60′s. I grew up during volatile times. I witnessed the assassinations of our beloved President Kennedy; his brother, Attorney General Bobby Kennedy; and one of our country’s greatest icons and voices for peace, Martin Luther King. Read the rest of this entry »

Thanksgiving Day always reminds me of the old Bill Cosby TV show – all the Thanksgiving episodes where the family sat around the big table and one-by-one, shared aloud the things for which they were grateful. For a few years that became our tradition as well, and I always liked it. Of course, I live far away from my family, so I don’t often see them on Thanksgiving, but the holiday still makes me grateful.

Unfortunately, it’s easy to lose sight of my gratitude. I get trapped in the frustrations of daily life and forget to be grateful. Instead, I focus on everything that is wrong or all the things that irritate me. When that happens, the way I interact with people also changes. One of my goals in life is to treat everyone I meet the way I would like to be treated – to be nice to everyone and to never judge others – but when I am frustrated or stressed out I sometimes become sarcastic or downright rude. When that happens I don’t like myself very much, and that’s always an indication that I’ve lost sight of my gratitude. Read the rest of this entry »

This afternoon I learned that the restaurant recently featured on the Today Show as having the world’s most expensive dessert was forced to close due to a pest infestation. Serendipity 3 on the Upper East Side failed its second consecutive health inspection in a month after health officials found a live mouse, mouse droppings in multiple places, flies, and dozens of live cockroaches in the establishment. Guess they were too busy trying to figure out a creative way to rip people off to deal with mundane tasks like cleaning. In a world where millions of people are starving, the owners of Serendipity had the audacity to come up with this outrageously priced dessert as a publicity stunt. Today they got their just desserts.

You may have noticed a few “less-than-subtle” changes to my blog over the past couple of months, so I thought I’d explain what that’s all about. When I returned from my round-the-world trip, I discovered the software that drives my blog (WordPress) had a new version available, so I downloaded and installed it. That’s when the “look” of my blog changed slightly, with the ‘Photo’ and ‘About’ tabs at the top rather than on the right hand side.

More importantly, this new version allows me to use something called ‘tags’ – a list of them is shown down the right hand side of my blog and beneath each individual article. Now, every article I write allows me to associate it with keywords (tags) that best describe the article. For example, the other day when I wrote about the new Read the rest of this entry »

This sculpture, titled “Pamplona 2006,” is also part of the collection being displayed along Sarasota’s Bayfront during the city’s annual Season of Sculpture. Sculptor DeWitt Godfrey uses unexpected materials – here, steel cylinders – that blur the readings of his works, “slipping freely between sculptures and industrial artifact.” While adults may have difficulty interpreting the work, kids certainly don’t. To them the piece screams “Jungle Gym!”

I walked along the Bayfront in downtown Sarasota last night to see all the artwork included in Sarasota’s Season of Sculpture. Some are pretty weird. Some are terrific. Here’s one of the terrific ones, which I just happened to catch as the quarter moon rose above it:

My friend Julia emailed this to me today. some of you may have seen it, but I laughed so hard when I read it I thought it was too good not to share:

The Christmas Pageant

My husband and I had been happily married (most of the time) for five years but hadn’t been blessed with a baby I decided to do some serious praying and promised God that if he would give us a child, I would be a perfect mother, love it with all my heart and raise it with His word as my guide.

God answered my prayers and blessed us with a son. Read the rest of this entry »