An Italian-American Writer & Poet with a Yankee Outsider Perspective
“My home is my castle” makes me think of an impregnable, guarded estate, high above the plebs. That might work for some city or suburban neighborhoods but not for mine in Saint Paul. Here with lots leaving about ten feet … Continued
This is addressed to you, the excellent musicians of the Minnesota Orchestra! Don’t be a rhinoceros. Try instead the part of a gazelle. Yes, I know: gazelles are brought down by big cats, and rhinoceros can stand as long as … Continued
Margotlog: Orchestras on the Slide: A Tale of Two Cities “The Twin Cities were separate at birth and far from identical,” I wrote in a novel called Falling for Botticelli (not yet published). Yet sometimes these separate cities suffer similar … Continued
For years “bat attacks” in my Minnesota residences wrought terror so extreme I was reduced to a quivering mass. What! Malevolent creatures flying across the moon, then swooping into my hair! Didn’t they carry rabies? On dark winter nights, I … Continued
My yearly summer jaunt up to the North Shore of Lake Superior used to run me home through a lazy blizzard of black and orange–not Iowa Hawkeye footballers, but Monarch butterflies on their way south and west. This year, I … Continued
Yes, we’ve had a few in our Saint Paul house over the years. One crept across the dining room floor, almost under Fluffy’s legs. She, the aged Maine Coon cat, sniffed at the tiny intruder, Fran scooped it up and … Continued
My North Dakota cousins had one of the most beautiful churches I have ever entered–an outdoor cathedral in the pines. Air and sunlight fell down upon us. Breezes blew. Music and text, belief and sustenance rose into an immensity tempered … Continued
Numero Uno: Gave up air-conditioning. Hated it anyway. Dried up the nostrils, made ears ring. Instead: we * Put in tight-fitting new windows with UV glass in the 1912 house.This meant winter and summer, the cold and hot stay … Continued
So wrote Thomas Jefferson in the Declaration of Independence. Those words give me a shiver–they promise so much! But on this eve of July 4th, our Independence Day, let’s start with “Life.” The opposite of Death. We are very moved … Continued