Just because I live in Los Angeles doesn’t mean I’m an Angeleno. Natives here love that it’s sunny and quasi-summer all year long. Not me. Locals think I’m crazy. Crazy like a fox, I say. When it’s cold, you can put on a sweater. When it’s hot, you’re out of luck. I pine for seasons. Some of my dearest memories carry me back to the winters of my Philadelphia youth. Sure, it … [Read more...] about Sláinte: A Winter’s Tale
Slainte Archives
Sláinte: Rest in Peace Ted Kennedy
As my sophomore year of high school began in 1960, the country was buzzing with the coming election. An Irish American was running for president! My Irish relatives rallied to the call and even my Italian family members supported the candidate. He might be Irish but he was Catholic too! When John F. Kennedy’s campaign came to Philadelphia, my father was one of the official … [Read more...] about Sláinte: Rest in Peace Ted Kennedy
Sláinte!: Bless the Buttie!
When autumn arrives, trees turn shades of ochre, orange and scandalous scarlet, scents of wood smoke waft on the suddenly chill air, and I am annually reminded of my first trip to Ireland. It was October, and after landing at Shannon, I rented a car and headed for my lodging, a country estate in County Sligo. As I drove, I smelled something burning. Figuring I was passing … [Read more...] about Sláinte!: Bless the Buttie!
Sláinte!: Irish Wedding Traditions
Just when I think I have my dad all figured out, a new snippet of info comes to light, and June always finds me thinking more about him than usual. It’s Father’s Day month, his birthday was the 3rd, and my parents were married on June 16th, now celebrated globally as Bloomsday, the day Leopold Bloom wandered through Dublin in Ulysses by James Joyce, Dad’s favorite author. June … [Read more...] about Sláinte!: Irish Wedding Traditions
Sláinte!: The Tree of Life
Though I am at most times a mild-mannered pacifist, last week I had a meltdown. But I had a good reason. I was fighting to save a tree. Every winter since moving into my Fifties Bungalow in 2002, I have pleaded with the owner not to prune the 50-plus-year-old 60-foot-tall poplar tree on the front lawn. The last ‘pruning,’ just before I moved in, had almost killed the tree. It … [Read more...] about Sláinte!: The Tree of Life