Latest Posts
“It Will Work Somehow”: Tante Clär’s Letters
In 2022, I began working with an extraordinary German teacher. She’s a cabaret singer. She brings a performer’s flair to her teaching, sometimes singing words or phrases to help me pronounce them. She can act out the difference between schwimmen and baden, and also between Angst and Weltschmerz. She effortlessly moves between four or five…
20 April 2020 Yom HaShoah
In the Spring of 2020, during the first months of Covid times, Yom HaShoah, the Jewish Holocaust memorial day, began at sundown on April 20th. April 20th, 2020 was also the 75th anniversary of the Allied bombing of the German town of Memmingen. For most, this coincidence was nothing but random trivia, but for me,…
Archeology of the Future
About a third of Pompeii has yet to be excavated; the consensus among scholars is that this remainder should be left for future archeologists, and their presumably more sophisticated technologies. –Rebecca Mead, “Pompeii Still Has Buried Secrets” 11/22/21 New Yorker https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2021/11/29/pompeii-still-has-buried-secrets Picking through the Wreckage When I used to think about the treasures hidden away…
The Origins in the Attic
Like many children of boomers, my sister and I faced the formidable challenge of cleaning and selling our parents’ suburban house. My parents hoarding had been unchecked for decades and had taken over most of the rooms in their four bedroom colonial. Given the complexities of my mother’s medical situation, one entire bedroom functioned as…
Something went wrong. Please refresh the page and/or try again.
About Me
I’m writing a book about my family history. These are excerpts.
Subscribe to My Blog
Get new content delivered directly to your inbox.
Jack-August 