Lately I keep whispering to myself: “You saw lilacs twice this year.” And it’s true. I saw them bloom in Brooklyn in early May, and then again when I traveled up to Provincetown and Greater Boston later that month. It was a shock, really. I’d been driving up terrible old Route 6 of Cape Cod when this heady fragrance started supplanting the gas fumes. It took a hot minute to realize the smell was not me having a stroke but lilacs. Again.
These last few months have been like a magic hour that just hasn’t ended.
I had so dreaded this year. Had seen the writing on the wall about the demise of my NY1 show and labor journal job; had been waging a legal battle of the sort that few long-time New Yorkers elude (housing-related); had regarded the second half of my forties as–oh, I’ll just say it–the beginning of the end. The boobs falling, the hair greying, the eyesight fading. You get the picture. Not pretty. Continue Reading →
The best part of April is its explosion of color after winter’s black-and-white hegemony: reds, pinks, yellows, oranges, yellows, and greens. So many greens. This year, with hateful extremists running—ahem, ruining—the show, the metaphor offered by spring’s rainbow feels especially resonant. I’ve written about this