Spare Parts

She wasn't paying attention. That's what happened to Mabel Knickerbocker the day she died. On the eve of her 50 th birthday, she was, as usual, doing things for other people. It's how she lived her life. It's how she died, too. By the time Timothy Knickerbocker could talk, his mother Mabel had already had five other Knickerbocker children. Each one a right mess of problems with talking back and acting out and being all around nuisances whenever Mabel needed them to behave. Timothy, being the kind of child who was, above all things, good-natured, never understood the lengths to which his brothers and sisters went to torment poor Mabel. "You're always my good child, boy," Mabel always said to Timothy. "I've been trying to get a good child all this time. Now that I got it right, I'm done birthing babies!" And she kept her word, though no one really knows if she would have, had her husband Hank not suddenly disappeared. Other than Hank, his...

Tamara Park is set against the backdrop of a small city skyline with big city envy. The name of the small city is also Tamara Park, which leads one to believe that someone didn't have a lot of imagination when they named the playground at the city's center. Aside from the four rusting hunter green benches that serve as both resting places and a separation barrier, there is also a three-child swing set, one slide and a jungle gym. Time and weather have peeled the once colorful paints from the wood and metal structures. These days few, if any, of the local children come to Tamara Park to play. Not since that day last March when Molly Becker claimed someone grabbed her from a swing and threw her to the ground. The only problem with Molly's story is that when she looked up from the ground, not one other person was around, except for her mother, who sat a way's off on one of the benches knitting a winter hat. Since Molly Becker's fall, several people have made claims abo...

Disclaimer I’m in no way qualified to review a new gadget. However, I can bring one thing that those in “the gadget know” cannot bring: A real point-of-view opinion from a regular gal. Starting Line As far as gadgets go, I’m about as savvy as a third-grader entering high school. Attempting to review a new technical device is a first for me. Please refrain from laughing! My techno-suave maneuverings go only as far as necessary to get by in our fast-paced world without seeming fossil-like to others. Despite being technologically challenged, I do enjoy the latest and greatest and I force myself to understand them, whenever possible. So imagine my delight when I got the chance to play with Barnes & Noble’s new e-Book Reader the ‘nook’? I had the ‘nook’ right in my hands, teasing and pulling me in for a trial run. It was an opportunity for me to bring one of my great loves together with one of my great phobias. The ‘nook’ is going to let me fuse reading and technol...

"There’s a crack (or cracks) in everyone…that’s how the light of God gets in." ~Elizabeth Gilbert ~ About two years ago, I picked up a book that I had been seeing in the hands of countless people both on my daily commuter travels and at bookstores. People, mostly women, engrossed so thoroughly in its pages that I felt I had to know what the big deal was about. I picked up the book, and like so many others before, it found a home on my crowded shelves. Not long after that, I was watching an episode of Oprah and she was interviewing a young, vibrant author who, if I remember correctly, seemed to me to be glowing. Surely she is pregnant, I assumed. That author was Elizabeth Gilbert. Her book, E at, Pray, Love: One Woman's Search for Everything Across Italy, India and Indonesia , was by then a bona fide worldwide phenomenon. As I sat back and listened to Liz Gilbert discuss the adventures – across Italy (to eat), India (to pray) and Indonesia (where she found love) - that led...

Call me crazy, but I never understood the rationale behind the Brazilian relatives’ reasons for keeping maternally abducted Sean Goldman in Brazil after her death. About five years ago, I watched an episode of Dateline. It was the first time I ever saw or heard of David Goldman, a Tinton Falls, New Jersey father pleading across borders for the return of his only child – a son – who had been taken on false pretenses by his mother to her native Brazil and remained there still. Even back then, as I listened to the story, one thing struck a chord: If the boy is biologically his own and he wants to raise him, who are these non-related people to try to keep him from it? A little history lesson Bruna Bianchi, an aspiring Brazilian designer meets handsome aspiring model David Goldman, while the two are in Paris. In the city of love, they fall in love and marry. Soon thereafter, they move to the suburbs of New Jersey. They have a son. They name him Sean. He is th...

Every December 16 th , since I was able to read, my family has taken part in a tradition that can be traced back in Catholic history to the mid-1700s in South America. I have grown to love and cherish this cultural branch of my ethnic family tree. I am amazed at the link this creates to my ancestors and to all who’ve read and maintained the tradition throughout the centuries. Even as I sit down to read it, I recognize that I am but a small stem on this large tree. (PHOTOS): The first photo is of my own Nativity. The other photos are of traditional ways the Novena is celebrated. The reading of the Christmas Novena has been a staple in homes in the South American country of Colombia (and elsewhere) and is celebrated and revered as a prayer of countless miracles during the season of miracles. Although I was born and raised in the United States, my parents brought along the tradition to share with their children. In my childhood home I reading the passages, recited the p...