#1 Spring weather. Which hasn't really shown up yet, though yesterday was gorgeous. #2 Angel food cake. I made one from scratch this year for Jonathan's birthday. It's light, sweet, sticky, and delectable. Also, only 130 calories per slice, and I choose to believe that doesn't vary by the size…
Heartbreak Hill: Hope After the Boston Bombings
My running shoes are neon pink. This morning, I laced them up and stepped onto the treadmill at my gym, just as I have many mornings in the last few weeks. And I ran. I ran toward the glossy faces of the broadcasters on CNN and the BBC as they…
A Guide to Oslo - Restaurants
Last year, Canadian Travel Website Cheapflights commissioned me to write an Insider's Guide to Oslo for them. I've found my calling. Researching restaurants (eating out) and researching bars (drinking beer) and researching museums was a good gig. Along the way, I wrote a little more than necessary for their purposes.…
Just One Baptist Preacher
Which black hole has Audrey fallen down today, you ask? Well, I'll be happy to share. This video clip is one of dozens which has been posted by a Baptist preacher out of Tempe, Arizona in the last few years. This guy is a NUT JOB. Unfortunately, he's handsome (Jack…
Sullivan's Travels: Dark, Funny & Timeless
Lovers of movies and television can easily name their favorite stars. Those beautiful faces, those echoing voices. But the personalities donned by those stars onscreen, the words they speak, are almost invariably the inventions of someone else. Directors direct and producers produce, but every time you are moved to laughter…
A Letter to 20-Year-Old Me
Dear 20-year-old Me, You're running around your college apartment in a Blue Man Group tank top and a pair of boxer shorts because the only place you could afford in Davis, California doesn't have air conditioning. You're eating Pop Tarts for lunch while an episode of ER runs in the…
All that I wrote for The Zesty Digest
Today, I gave the editorial staff at The Zesty Digest my notice. I couldn't shake the feeling that I'm no longer their target demographic (if I ever was). Beyond that, we had a couple of creative differences that really boiled down to my desire to write about stuff that moved…
Willa Cather, Posthumous Privacy & the Internet
Before Willa Cather died in 1947, she specifically requested that none of her personal correspondence ever be published or even quoted from. Executors of her estate have adhered to that personal request ever since. Until now. Roughly 500 of Cather's estimated 3,000 letters will be published shortly , and are…