I so enjoyed the new movie, Nyad. It’s the true story of Diana Nyad who, at the age of 60, decides to try again to complete the grueling 110-mile swim from Cuba to Florida, a feat she first attempted 30 years earlier. How can you not be inspired by someone who pushes her body beyond...
As a lifelong watcher of the Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade, I caught Paula Abdul’s song and dance performance on the Jennie-O float. She performed her song “Straight Up,” which was released in 1988. There’s lots of praise for Abdul. Other people are noting the flaws in her lip-synching, the doctored sound on her tap routine,...
The first time I went to Europe on my high school senior trip, we visited five countries in 17 days. As a teen who’d spent most of my childhood dreaming about traveling the world, I was the first one off the bus to see the Parthenon, the Colosseum, the Louvre, Big Ben: postcards come to...
Remember that famous line from a ballad, “Old soldiers never die, they just fade away”? I’ve always thought something similar about writers and some artists. They never retire. Why would we? Unlike other types of jobs, we can pursue our art until we die, right? And don’t we always say that writing is not what...