The others were already through their first round of lemon drops by the time I got there. The late rush hour was aggravated by sprinkles. After two months of sun, Portlanders were indulging their habit of collective amnesia for rainy-weather-driving. I avoided the candy drinks and took on the bottle of wine that would take [...]
From an early age, I gave my daughter expert coaching in ice-cream cone management. I knew iced cream would be an important part of her future, so I approached this as a valuable skill to be handed down and practiced. You circle the cone, working the meeting of cone and ice cream…
Actually, we didn’t do so badly between his few phrases of English, occasional bits of German and much hand-waving. The will to communicate is everything and Hungarians have plenty of that.
It was a hopeful sign of family Sunday mornings to come: mornings filled with many kinds of stinky fish; mornings of love.
First, the sandwich bag was all wrong. It could be any plastic bag that found its way into the house, usually cradling my Dad’s stiff shirt or the Tribune. These bags were huge, unwieldy and, by the time they reached the cafeteria, sticky inside and out. The sandwich didn’t float out— often the bag would have to be removed from the sandwich.
I walk into the kitchen and feel the spin begin: the veggie bin holds items that “need eating.” I sweep across the counter tops and the peeling and rinsing and chopping begin. Mounds of veggie bits dive into the liquid on the stove. The food processor jumps up on the counter in anticipation of a [...]
People in Texas didn’t speak in terms of the four or five cows that brother Norbert would have brokered in Westphalia. Here, people had thousands of head of cattle. They took enormous risks and pulled oil right out of the ground. But the biggest difference was safety, security, warmth, acceptance—knowing that your hardest times were behind you and you’d made it through somehow.
Don’t we Jews love Passover the best? Our Seder celebrates our departure from Egypt, our journey in the desert for forty years before we could enter the promised land of Israel. We mark this event not as some distant anniversary, but as if we were led personally from slavery to become free men, women and [...]
In my early travels I saw people cook smelly things in woks on the street. I would ask “what is it?” “again…please,” a third time… Now I was embarrassed and I still didn’t have a clue what he said. My rule became: if it’s very hot; buy it; bite it; and if you don’t like [...]
What is Chanukah all about? Chanukah, my children, Chanukah is the festival of socks. Each year the great Bubbe comes to the foot of each child’s bed and takes a sniff. “Och, gotenyu. What a smell. I can tell you need new socks, you little stinker.” And so, all over the world, at Chanukah, children [...]