Have you noticed the songs of the birds returning to your neighborhood? I’m always amazed at how they spring into song the moment the weather warms. Our parakeet, who recently died, was a marathon warbler. Three years ago, we bred him with a cute female by giving the smitten pair a bigger cage and wood…

It was great to see Mr. Chattering and the kids again. But while I was gone my children acquired new friends–thriving head lice. Apparently, our school has become infested. Two hours into my homecoming, I was combing Pantene cream rinse through each tangled, fine-haired Chattering head. With the younger, I tried to make the hunt…

I’ve seen a realm I knew existed but hadn’t visited before. It’s a world in which you say to a Delta ticket agent: “My 91-year-old father is terribly ill, and I can’t spontaneously pay $1,200 for every plane ticket.” It’s a world in which pastors, hospital social workers, well-appointed ladies granting tours to managed care…

Did you catch actor Hal Holbrook (in the guise of a hospital patient) tell Tony Soprano last night that “We are all connected. We are all one”? Later in the program, the nation’s favorite gangster confesses that he’s thinking we are all part of “something bigger.” Finally, at episode’s close, Tony stares up into the…

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