El is my great-niece, Gisela, which her family pronounces the German way, Ghee-sah-la. Perhaps if they had given it the French pronounciation, Jeez-a-lah, she might not have shortened it. First she was (understandably) Ella; now she's El which, in Philadelphia, New York, and Chicago is a type of mass transit. She is a loving, awkward 23-year-old ( Read more... )

I can't remember the exact year when my family started making a Big Deal out of getting together for Hanukkah but I know where. It was after my parents moved into a retirement community (Fairhaven in Maryland) with a community room big enough to accommodate all of us. That was sometime in the early 80s, so we've been gathering for more than thirty ( Read more... )