The Rustico We wake up to a text from Alison and Francis -- that’s our daughter and son-in-law --saying their flight from JFK to Paris...

Michael Tucker in THE TEMPEST at ACT My knees wobbled as I edged out onto the catwalk and looked down through the ropes and pulleys and...

“I have a kidney stone.”  That’s my opener.  Simple, evocative.  Not unlike, “I had a farm in Africa …”  Close your eyes and imagine...

In the tiny Umbrian village of Aqualoreto, there’s a piazza that’s barely big enough to call itself that; just two streets crossing at an...

There were six of us for lunch on the deck of the Ristorante Lampara, which juts out over the fishing port of Sciacca. The fleet was...

When I’m mulling over a sentence, or even a phrase, every word I put down is a bookmark, holding the place until the cleverer me deigns...

Over my mother’s dead body, my Aunt Lil taught me how to read.  Lil was the oldest of the three Proser sisters and the smartest.  She was...