Everyone knows how to take a bath, right? 
I thought I did, until I visited Japan for the first time.
Japan has elevated bathing to an art form, complete with accoutrements like wooden buckets ...  [+]

Autumn's here—Happy New Year!

Not for me, that pallid substitute in January with its noisemakers and forgotten resolutions. My calendar resets annually with the opening of classroom doors, no ...  [+]

Who can walk today
when leaves leapfrog across the boulevard
and swirl recklessly round each ...  [+]

Many years ago, I worked as a film and television extra for a few months. Interspersed with temporary jobs at insurance companies and accounting firms, the onscreen background work paid no more than ...  [+]

Wind chimes ring behind our house
in random harmony,
riffing with each passing bird
and ...  [+]

Everyone receives gifts they neither need nor want—bath salts for people who only shower, a frilly nightgown wrapped up for someone who sleeps in sweatpants, that 27th tie . . . Sometimes we return ...  [+]

I don't remember which I encountered first: Helene Hanff's book, 84 Charing Cross Road, or the Anne Bancroft / Anthony Hopkins movie of the same name. All I know is that decades later the title's ...  [+]