I’m gonna miss you, Elsie Mae

I never met Elsie Mae but I wish I had. I don’t know too much more than last week’s obituary tells me: She taught grade school for most of her life, led Sunday school, and played the church organ at the First Presbyterian Church in Ottumwa, Iowa. She had 13 grandchildren and five great-grandchildren. She […]

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A father, a son, and the longest day

Excerpted from “The Sourtoe Cocktail Club,” by Ron Franscell (Globe Pequot Press, 2011). While Matt sleeps, I watch the subtly changing sky as the sun circles around to the north on the longest day of the year. The clouds are breaking up and patches of blue are oozing through. The day is warming. I smell […]

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The day the sun didn’t set for a father and a son

June 21, 2007 Somewhere in the Arctic on a day when the sun never sets While Matt sleeps, I watch the subtly changing sky as the sun circles around to the north.  The clouds are breaking up and patches of blue are oozing through.  The day is warming.  I smell spruce, woodsmoke and musky earth.  […]

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A message from the past

As I write this, my birthday is still about 13 hours away, but my first birthday well-wish has arrived from the other side of the world. It comes from my friend Shoukry Henain, a Cairo chef I met on the street there just a few weeks after 9/11, and who plays a small but sublime role […]

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