Catskill Weekend

J was my husband’s college roommate and the two have been very close since then.   In fact J and his wife K are among our closest friends  –  we’ve vacationed and travelled abroad together,  traditionally spend New Year’s Eve as a foursome,  and are always there to share each others’  joys and sorrows. Yet although I love J,  he once did something I found hard to forgive. It was many summers ago and we were spending the weekend at J and K’s house in the country.   It was...

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West with the Night

Walking down a tree-lined block in the East 80s the other day I passed a brownstone with a pretty patio fronting the street.  There on a small table someone had left an open book. Always curious about what others are reading,  I looked through the wrought iron gate to see the title — it was Beryl Markham’s 1942 memoir,  West with the Night.  You may know of Markham,  the British-born Kenyan aviator who in 1936 became the first woman to fly solo across the Atlantic. A free...

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