I, like many fans, really enjoyed season 2 of "The Bear," in which Carmy and his ragtag crew try to open an upscale restaurant in three months in the old Italian beef eatery Carmy inherited from his older brother Michael. I jokingly called this season “Bad News Bear” and “School of Bear,” where (as in … Continue reading yes, chef – learning craft on The Bear
Category: Americanness
road trips revisted: point/counterpoint
Soon, we’ll be taking a road trip to the Northeast with the kids to visit friends and family. This seemed a good time to reprise these two blog posts about road trips from July 2006, one from me and one from my spouse. Although we wrote these a couple years before we started our family … Continue reading road trips revisted: point/counterpoint
#18 – october 21: lingering covid
I’m wrapping up my covid chronicles with this18th and final installment. Maybe I’ll revisit the topic later, when these pandemic times truly feel behind us. But right now, almost three years in, covid is still here and people are still dying everyday. Most of the world, however, is getting on with it, the booster shots … Continue reading #18 – october 21: lingering covid
#17 – february 8: the tyranny of normal
2019. I look back at photos from that time with a bit of wonder. My 50th birthday celebration at a Chicago restaurant with friends who’d traveled from other cities. Our spring break trip to Korea with my mother. The kids’ birthday parties at one venue or another. Our then-6th grader’s first middle school dance. One … Continue reading #17 – february 8: the tyranny of normal
the myth of white innocence
The system is working as it was designed. What does that mean? As far as I can tell, it means the system is designed to protect the myth of white innocence at all costs. The finger is ever pointed outward, never inward. There is always an other to blame who somehow forced white men’s hands. … Continue reading the myth of white innocence
a communal miscarriage
After many discouraging years on the academic job market, waiting for our lives to settle into stability, my husband and I agreed we couldn’t wait too much longer and we started trying for a baby. We were living in New Jersey at the time, close to my family and many of our friends. That year, … Continue reading a communal miscarriage
#16 – september 18: are we “post”?
Clearly not. There was a moment this summer, sometime in June or July when the vaccine became available for kids 12 and over, when there seemed to be a collective unclenching, a sigh of relief as we returned to some limited gatherings indoors and looked forward to a much better school year. People traveled and … Continue reading #16 – september 18: are we “post”?
#12 – december 31: ending the year in a pandemic
Every year I put together a family photo calendar with photos from the previous year arranged in chronological order month by month. 2021’s January page features pictures of us at the Chicago Botanic Garden Lightscape show and February features my younger son’s birthday party at a trampoline place that I doubt is still in business. … Continue reading #12 – december 31: ending the year in a pandemic
#11- november 25: giving thanks in a pandemic
What is the right way to give thanks in a pandemic? There are the obvious things to be thankful for: our health, our jobs, a warm house, plenty of food, each other. And there are the obvious ways not to do it: gathering in groups with those outside your household; not wearing your mask; letting … Continue reading #11- november 25: giving thanks in a pandemic
#10 – october 8: moving in a pandemic (part 2)
I’m working on a longer post about finally moving into our house after the roller coaster experience of getting through the underwriting process. But for now, in the midst of the upheaval of the national news, which seems to bring fresh horror and outrage (and some schadenfreude) nearly every hour, worn out from trying to … Continue reading #10 – october 8: moving in a pandemic (part 2)
