Notes from Around the Block- Olive the trees have olives
- Wanda Hickey and the Frog Pond
- A recently discovered DNA thread: forwarding news articles
- A Bride in Blue
- The Gates to a President’s Hell: Water and the IRS
- Marriage in Oxymoronica
- The Present Moment
- If your life were a book
- From the mouths of old babes
- The Atlanta Teachers’ Onion, then and now
-
Category Archives: Writing and Teaching
Wanda Hickey and the Frog Pond
by cheri block May and June signal prom time in American high schools. You know, the Junior Prom and the Senior Ball, lavish dress-up galas where fully blossomed women wear tiny satin purple dresses and stiletto pumps and boys who … Continue reading
From the mouths of old babes
by cheri block Took my mother Joan to her monthly infusion at the local hospital this morning. There, sitting with a drip line in her tiny arm and a Glamour Magazine in her crooked fingers, she said, How did I … Continue reading
The Atlanta Teachers’ Onion, then and now
by cheri block Reading this morning about the teachers’ union in Atlanta, Georgia, blaming their conspiratorial cheating on the tests themselves, as if tests were life forms, reminded me of why I abhor the teachers’ union: it is a bureaucratic … Continue reading
The Scream
by cheri block I visited the Museum of Modern Art in New York City last Friday with the express purpose of seeing Edvard Munch’s famous pastel, The Scream. This piece of art, drawn in 1895, resides in a private collection. … Continue reading
Wild Turkeys and Me
by cheri block This morning, as I read Andreas Kluth’s blog post titled Angela and Me, I was struck with the profound difference in our lives. He–reporting on (arguably) the most powerful woman in Europe (other than his wife) … Continue reading
Posted in Life, People, Writing and Teaching
Tagged andre, Angela Merkel, the Economist magazine, wild turkeys
18 Comments
Handy Hugh
by cheri block Today is my late father’s birthday. He died young, by today’s standards. He was a dentist whose hands gently repaired aching teeth. His hands, holding a reel, also waited patiently for that trout-nibble in the river. They … Continue reading
My thesis, Entry Three: The Prospectus
by cheri block The Prospectus (with a capital P) is due on Friday, September 21, 2012. If I cannot make that deadline, then I must wait until January to submit it. The Judge nudges me, interrupting my yoga stretches … Continue reading
Posted in Education, My Thesis, Writing and Teaching
Tagged Franz Kafka, My thesis, parables, Rabbi Nachman of Breslov, the dialectic, WG Sebald
15 Comments
My Thesis, Entry Two: On writing well…one critic’s view
by cheri block I’ve been reading a number of essays on Kafka and today, I came across a provocative paragraph written by David Constantine, a German language and literature professor who retired from Oxford in 2000. He writes about Kafka’s … Continue reading
Posted in On fiction, Writing and Teaching
Tagged Kafka, Writing, Writing a Master's Thesis
31 Comments
My Thesis, Entry One: Now, methought, the air grew denser, perfumed by an unseen censor…
by cheri block Throughout my career, I have encouraged many people and students to write: to write a blog, a short story, a novel. Even now, when engaged in conversation with a stranger or an intimate who seems to be … Continue reading
Posted in Life, Writing and Teaching
Tagged blogging, Driving Lonely Highway 50, Stanford, Writing a Master's Thesis
18 Comments
Call in the bloodhounds!
by cheri sabraw You will remember that I balked at spending $45.00 for a wire (gossamer light, I might add) gratitude sign that I had seen at Lily’s Coffee Shop. At home with the joyous weekend now only a brief … Continue reading
