Humans are unique. We don’t just eat to survive, we eat because it’s fun. It’s a sensual experience, meaning that our senses are involved. Eating can be quite hedonistic. Look at the fast food industry. If it was merely about convenience, people would simply buy healthy foods that someone else prepares. It’s not even about…
This story isn’t so much a story as it is … a memoir of my childhood in Brooklyn. It’s about setting, and place, which shapes you more than almost anything. Growing up in Brooklyn was probably the greatest thing that could have happened to anyone. I’ve never really felt as home anywhere. Some day, I…
The Pants Protest By: Robin J Engel When I was in 6th grade, I had Mrs. Sherwin: the meanest, loudest teacher in the school. She wore fishnet stockings over her regular stockings, she was the stereotypical, old-fashioned school marm – stoic and stern. Back in those days there were blackboards and we used chalk. There…
Hello everyone! I’ve gone to visit my first grandbaby, Tenzin. We’ve decided that my name will be Bubbie, which is the Yiddish word for Gramma, because someone has to carry on the culture. Also, my favorite pickles in the world happen to be Bubbie’s garlic dill pickles. (I grew up down the block from pickle…
The winter of 1976: Gramma’s Transition and a Sense of God Oddly enough, everything seems like a distant memory, even though they’re my own memories. Perhaps, I needed the distance from them, so they wouldn’t have the emotional charge they had when I was closer to them. Although, I’ve heard that memories and emotions stay…
How do you know what you’re going to be when you grow up? Children have so many dreams. I always tell my students to have plan B when they tell me they are going to be the next Michael Jordan. I hope I’m not squashing their dreams, but I like to pepper a little realism…
I’m back. I’ve decided that I’m going to share some of my memoir with you, Dear Readers. Everyone has stories to tell, so it is time that I shared some of my own. These vignettes are based on a series of questions created by Deborah S. Hansen, Founder of Cameo Life Stories. At times, I…
There will be no post today, other than to say how grateful I am for all of you, for turning AZ blue, for a new administration coming in that has experience, dignity, and compassion, for my health and the well being of my family and friends, for the baby gestating in the belly of my…
By: Robin J. Engel “Attention, Ladies and Gentlemen. Is there anyone on this plane that would like to take a later flight in return for a $500 voucher? It seems that we have overbooked.” Sometime, one person’s mistake is another person’s good fortune. The year was 2013. I’d left my job and decided to travel…