Elaine Ambrose’s tell-all memoir, Frozen Dinners, “will resonate with anyone who has endured family dysfunction and will defrost the hearts of readers everywhere,” says Joely Fisher, actress, singer and author of Growing Up Fisher.
The book, to be published in November, takes a turn from Ambrose’s familiar sharp humor and sheds light on a cold childhood that would give rise to her wit and resiliency. An author, blogger and humorist, […]
Essays and News
A Connecticut Yankee in Ireland
Dear Ireland:
Though I feel I know you well after over 20 visits, still I couldn’t let another moment go by without writing to thank you. The gifts of summer you shared with me were truly awesome. What’s more, I learned heaps — about you, people and life in general. And if, as some say, memories are a person’s greatest possession, I can now add a wealth of new riches to my storehouse. […]
Cute cousin combo
When two of your three grandchildren are siblings and the third one is not, that makes all of them cousins, even though the first two are not cousins of each other but only of the third, who is a cousin of the first two but not of himself.
That makes the cuckoo who concocted this cockamamie cousin conundrum a grandfather twice removed, which means he should have been removed from a family get-together twice already but, […]
A victim’s guide to swimming pool ownership
In the scorching summer weather, which lasts roughly from Easter to Thanksgiving in East Texas, if you want to avoid morphing into an extra-greasy (and slightly hairy) strip of bacon, escaping the heat and humidity is a necessity.
Although the air-conditioning at Walmart can be quite exhilarating, you can only browse through the mouthwash and processed meats for so long before you raise the suspicions of store management — and they threaten to hire you. […]
An unexpected gift
One spring break my husband and I took my three kids on a mission trip. We chose an organization in the Yucatán Peninsula that worked with children. My kids knew a little Spanish but they planned to depend on me since I studied it in college; 23 years later and I was finally going to use my degree.
During our trip we spent hours one day in Sucopo fitting adults with reading glasses. While my husband and I helped with the fittings, […]
