The drive from Long Island was a long one. Route 17 to Wurtsboro and then Route 209 to Ellenville. A few County roads later and we found our way to Four Seasons Lodge. Every summer there was at least one visit to my parents at the Four Seasons Lodge. When we arrived, my father was at the ready for our tennis match. It was their bungalow colony in the Catskills. Their summer retreat.It was a special place. It was founded by survivors of the Holocaust. To my mind, a reflection ...

One of my very first, favorite and fabulous woman was Ms. Dolly Herself! An amazing down-to-earth, country star singer, who is a beautiful, smart and a talented female icon. WWDD? I know....not the first woman you’d think of when naming a personal favorite. I’ve enjoy how she embraced her independence and strength from a place of gorgeous beauty and kind southern demeanor. One of my first favorite movies was 9 to 5. Dolly made her debut as an administrative assistant, then ...

Everyone was home last weekend. It was one of those special times. As my family has been known to do, we spent a whole evening watching home movies.   I can’t really explain why, but this time I was completely taken by the evolution of our hair, each and every one of us. The movies went back to literally to the day Jaclyn was born and beyond. Let’s just say we looked different. It was very 90’s.   Over the years I had puffy hair, straight hair, combination puffy and strai...

I watched “Avengers: Endgame” for about the fifth time this past weekend. My husband was watching the football game on Saturday afternoon and I went into another room to watch something else. Before I knew it, I was putting on Disney Plus and clicking on “Endgame.”   “Endgame” is one of those movies I can watch over and over again, along with movies such as “Infinity Wars,” “Avatar,” “Guardians of the Galaxy,” and any “Star Trek” movie. I guess my love of science fiction i...

A year ago I found myself blogging about how “my” baseball team messed up things, some not its fault, some self-induced with the selection of a new manager. Perhaps fitting under the prior never ready for prime time owners. Things changed this off-season, perhaps not soon enough, but certainly in satisfying ways for most, if not all, fans of my team which (obvious to most readers) plays at Citifield.   This year some signings – a well-regarded catcher and a talented relief pi...

How long would you wait in a Doctor's waiting room before leaving? Keep in mind that the apppointment is not an emergency, just a standard follow up...   I found out mine is 70 minutes. Watching people sign in after me, get seen before me and leave while I was waiting is infuriating.   After 1 hour and 10 minutes,  I told the receptionist I was leaving and I'll call to make another appointment. Wouldn't you know that they called me 5 minutes later to see if I was still in the...

I have made up a game which I play on Facebook.  I post interesting, but obscure, photographs of celebrities or sports figures and my Facebook friends guess as to identity.  If and when a person guesses correctly, I award a colorful Bingo! It’s participatory fun! Last week I posted a mid 20th century photograph of Norman Rockwell painting Marilyn Monroe and was shocked when it was banned by Facebook, as being against their “community standards.” The disputed picture is pos...

When the 21 Club announced that it was yet another casualty of Covid-19, I thought about that special lunch in August of 2018 when Flo and I - with several other Gotham members - enjoyed the rare experience of eating in the restaurant’s once secret underground dining room.During the years of Prohibition, the “privileged” of New York could still partake with their meals in the safety of the 21 Club’s special dining room.We met by the bar and were taken through the kitchen and ...

How are you defining success in 2021? My story begins in December of 2020. Picture a make-shift she-shed with all the beautiful trimmings. Mirrored desk, with large double monitors, complete with a fancy media light to give proper, Hollywood lighting to those Zoom and WebEx calls.This money manager has been holding many family fortunes in place, like a ballast in the throws of a horrific storm, tossed in the economic cesspool of a pandemic and political quagmire. With decis...

  My blog today is short. Mostly because I am trying to keep it within the rules and to keep my sentiment from sounding political. But I just can’t write about anything else. I am so very worried about our country. At the same time, however, I am choosing to be hopeful. When my kids were young, we used to say that being angry was a choice. Of course, not right in the emotional moment – but right afterwards. I would ask them – “how does it feel to be angry”? And they wou...

I wrote this blog before the events of last week with the intention of posting it today. After the events of last week, I seriously considered holding this blog back. But my intended message is important and not intended, at all, to address current events.   As many of my Facebook friends know, I posted on December 31, 2020 that I was having my annual mammography and sonogram. I strongly believe that regular mammograms are important for women as it has proven over and over ...

I often look back at what I drafted the previous year before I compose the instant blog.  Peaking at that 2020 commentary really focused on the contrast in how we live today, still under a Pandemic but hopefully vaccinated, or on the verge of receiving this protective measure.  Last year – joined by a few friends – I watched a playoff game albeit not featuring my still failing team (at least they rid it of the coach who ought never have been given the reins to that team wrong...

A fortune cookie provided by my local Chinese take out with my dinner the other night read:     "If you don't enjoy what you have, how could you be happier with more?"   That is so true. I was enjoying reflecting on this statement when I turned it over and it said "Please disregard all previous fortunes."...

Did you ever notice a circular scar on someone’s arm or leg?  When I was young such scars were visible and common due to the mid 20th century need for smallpox vaccinations. To my knowledge such scars are not caused by a coronavirus vaccination.  I am one of the people who seeks to be vaccinated. I just got on a vaccination list and can’t wait for my turn to come up.   Even if my vaccination causes a small scar it is a very small price to pay on the road to herd immunity!   ...

When my children were born, I saved a copy of the New York Times from their birthday. I’m not sure what eventually happened to those copies over the many years but I remember showing it to them as they grew up. On Tuesday, my daughter gave birth to her second child - our newest grand-daughter. On Wednesday, my daughter texted me and asked me whether I had a copy of Tuesday’s New York Times….and could I save it. A nice tradition - remembered and valued. ...