Play time.
I’m the flounder.


A food memoir of weight loss, family recipes, and strategies for staying healthy in your 70's and beyond
Play time.
I’m the flounder.


Turtle Rescue Mission-2021
Behind our house a block away is a stream. Over the years I’ve performed a number of turtle rescues. Some were swept into the neighborhood streets by storms. Others are obviously lost and end up in the backyard. I found this little one in our garage. I put her into a bucket with some water so you can get some perspective on how tiny this turtle is.
By Sally Schwartz
It’s easy to be a writer. All you have to do is tell people, “Hi. I’m a writer.”
Gosh. All this time I thought I wrote memoir, and then this nugget of fiction pops out of my fingertips.
The nonfiction version goes more like this: It’s not so easy to be a writer.
Already I need to make an edit. One thing about being a writer is crazy easy: dressing the part. Really, I can’t say enough about the wardrobe. Everyone is going around, giving credit to COVID-19, as if only a pandemic could inspire an appreciation for elastic. Meanwhile, every writer worth her weight in sweatpants can attest to the fact that we’ve understood the joys of pajamas-as-daywear long before the world went into lockdown.
Earning no steady income, and forgoing benefits might be seen by some as professional drawbacks. Those people, who clamor for the…
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By Sandra Hager Eliason In my transition from Doctor to Writer, I thought the hardest lesson would be moving from emotionless, “objective” medical …
The Ethics of Silence
I haven’t had a beer in three months. When I go to the grocery store I typically stand in front of the refrigerated beer case for several minutes surveying the choices. The cans are colorful, designed by those whose understand the science of attraction and they are successful in making me stop and browse. The most surprising thing besides not recognizing most of the choices was the fact I still have no desire for a beer. Real world proof the less you have something the less you want it. This is probably true for most things except chocolate and pizza.
For the first time in a long time I’ve been thinking about removing beer from my Don’t Have It In the House list. The scale tells me I’m holding steady at 169-170. For years I dreamed about reversing the ravages of time believing I could disprove the long held belief that everyone puts on a pound or two every year the older you become. Well this “inevitable” weight gaining process doesn’t have to happen. You have to be disciplined about what you eat and what you have to make sacrifices if you want to avoid taking up two seats instead of one on the bus and/or diabetes, and…
“Weight change is a common symptom when people are having difficulty coping with mental health challenges. A majority of adults (61%) reported experiencing undesired weight changes since the start of the pandemic, with more than 2 in 5 (42%) saying they gained more weight than they intended. Of this group, adults reported gaining an average of 29 pounds (with a median gain of 15 pounds), and 1 in 10 (10%) said they gained more than 50 pounds. For the 18% of Americans who said they lost more weight than they wanted to, the average amount of weight lost was 26 pounds (median of 12 pounds).”
American Psychological Association
Stress in America February 2021 Harris Poll
You have to make hard choices and oftentimes difficult sacrifices. Like keeping beer as Number One on the you know what list and being extremely disciplined when tempted standing in the store where temptation rears her fangs. I am not a saint nor do I plan on placing beer on a Never Eat or Drink list. I’ve merely chosen to drink a lot less of the stuff because I know this beverage puts the weight on for me.
Besides I’ve gotten a lot of expressions of shock from people who haven’t seen me in a while. I guess dropping over 20 pounds will elicit such comments. I’ve had to pull my belt in by two notches. But I really think my face lost weight because faces can and do lose weight. What you think?


By Rasma Haidri
All writing is hard work, and the memoirist’s work is among the hardest. Journaling, whether stuttered fragments or flowing spontaneous prose, is among the easiest as it doesn’t have to do anything or go anywhere or impress anyone. No one is going to read it. Journals are where we record the raw material for memoir. The journal narrates ideas, dreams and struggles in a context we are now far removed from. The journal’s narrator always predates who we think we are today.
Are Journals Memoir? — BREVITY’s Nonfiction Blog
I’ve finally written an introduction to my future best seller that I’m actually satisfied with. The five or six previous versions are trash. Hopefully I’ll still be happy with my latest draft. Only 10 Chapters to go.


“Sure but don’t tell your Mom I said you could.”