Short Takes
July 19, 2011
Jade is 4. She has cancer. Artists are helping. You can too.
From the blog of our friend Jane Chafin: Los Angeles parents (artists) with no health insurance, a sick child, a caring community. Want to help? Start here.
July 19, 2011
It Gets Better: J.K.Rowling writes to an orphan
Sometimes a book can be a lifeline. Like…here.
July 7, 2011
A piano, a beautiful voice — and, briefly, politics fades
"Lost hours and secrets too/ No one will find but you/ Falling is like brand new rain/ Places I have never been/ I thought these things would come to me/ Love is another country, and I want to go." That is Tift Merritt, from Another Country, and in a month when the national conversation is ugly, I find it heals.
June 22, 2011
The hungry children look up, and they are not fed
Summer is cruel to the poor — and especially to poor children. Seventeen million American kids get free lunches during the school year. In summer, they get nothing. The effect of hunger is never good, but when it comes to kids, hunger slows brain development, and kids come back to school in September less able to handle the challenges. Share Our Strength — a terrific organization; we turned our wedding into a benefit for it — has teamed up with the Ansara Family Fund at the Boston Foundation. Every dollar you donate, up to $25,000, will be matched. To get acquainted with SOS, click here. To make a tax-deductible contribution, click here.June 21, 2011
Head Butler becomes a Gilty Pleasure
No doubt you know of GiltCity.com, the site that sells luxury items and experiences at preferred pricing. What you may not know: The blogs of Gilt City’s “Unlisted” site give you very savvy, very inside information about goods, services and experiences in New York (and, soon, more cities.) And now Head Butler will be appearing there, probably every Monday. Is it copy I’ve cut-and-pasted from this site? No, although sometimes I’ll surely be inspired to expand on ideas and reviews I’ve already shared here. As I was, in my first column, urging readers to see “Tree of Life.” To find me, click here.
