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My brother and I were talking the other day about recordings of our parents' voices. Apparently this is something he's had on his mind too. He's got a few recordings of Dad's voice on answering machine tapes, but he hadn't found any recordings of Mom's voice. I could tell from his voice that this was really bringing him down, as he's probably ( Read more... )

Funny, how, pretty much the only times I have the opportunity to reflect and/or entertain deep thoughts these days, are during my commute when I'm listening to a podcast ( Read more... )

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When I was a kid, my dad bought his-and-hers Suzuki motorcycles for himself and my mom. They both had these white Bell full-faced helmets with matching red pinstripes. His bike was a 650cc model (a little more power), while hers was a 250 (I always considered it a "ladies' bike ( Read more... )

I listened to an episode of The Brian Lehrer Show this morning, on the way to work, and they were interviewing Niall O'Dowd about the St Patrick's day parade in NYC, as well as other Irish-American matters ( Read more... )

I commute on an old BMW motorcycle, vintage 1985. This is the bike that my sister, my brother and I gave to my dad to celebrate his retirement. When he died, my brother and sister felt pretty strongly that it should go to me, and I've tried to give it the sort of love it needs. Ride it as much as my dad would want to ( Read more... )

I never knew my grandmother. There was a woman in my younger life, whom we kids knew only as "gramma," but we were told rather early on that she was not the woman who gave birth to my mother. She was a nice old lady, who apparently was a saint for marrying and putting up with my grandpa. He was a drunk, and she was the warm face of our grandparents ( Read more... )