Happy New Year
Ellie — I hear you didn’t make it to midnight on this December 31st — but then, neither did your grandfather. 2017! People my age marvel at what a high number that is, at how quickly the years pass as we grow older. By the…
Ellie — I hear you didn’t make it to midnight on this December 31st — but then, neither did your grandfather. 2017! People my age marvel at what a high number that is, at how quickly the years pass as we grow older. By the…
Dear Ellie — It’s been a tumultuous fall. Aside from the November presidential election, your great-grandfather died that same month. He was your mother’s father’s father and his name was William Fendall Pennebaker. He would have been 99 on December 3. Everyone called him Bill,…
Dear Ellie — Well, you know how it went down. We didn’t elect the first woman president this week. We elected a man who sees women as objects, who’s volatile and bigoted, who wears his inexperience and lack of knowledge as proudly as he would…
Ellie — I kept another blog for several years. Looking back over the hundreds of posts I wrote, I noticed the ones about politics didn’t age well. They were too tied to long-gone current events and seemed tired after a few years. So, with my…
Dear Ellie — For the past five years, your grandfather and I have lived in a downtown highrise condo in Austin. It’s a lovely place, where we’re treated very well. It’s also been a good place for us to be at this time in our…
Ellie — Well, you just had your first international trip. You even have a passport, with a photo that shows you glaring at the camera. (Passport photos are never good, even when you’re an attractive baby.) You and your parents met Uncle Nick, his girlfriend…