Jacqueline Sheehan's Blog, page 5
June 10, 2012
NEVER TRUST A SEAGULL
What is the best thing about summer in New England? Lobster rolls. There may be other virtues like the beach, the strawberries, the roadside stands selling local produce, but they all take second fiddle to lobster rolls. We can get pretty good lobster rolls right here in Massachusetts, but the ultimate place to get
May 18, 2012
FINDING OLD FRIENDS
I met Clark when I was 18, fresh out of high school. We both worked on a federal program called Student Work Experience and Training (SWEAT) at Southbury Training School, an institution in Connecticut for people with developmental disabilities. I met Anne when I was 23, once again working a summer job at the same place.
May 13, 2012
Writing Block in China - Guest Blog by Morgan Sheehan-Bubla
I�m a writer with an almost three year old. Lately I�ve been the mom of a sick almost three year old. I sometimes sit down to write, but mostly stare at the computer without doing much of anything before being pulled away by some sort of child emergency.
�Mommy! I is hitting
�Mommy! I is hitting
April 17, 2012
Rachael Maddow: Drifting
I couldn’t wait to see Rachel Maddow when she came to Mt. Holyoke College this month. I was one of the first 100 people to reserve a ticket; a very modest $5 secured my place in general seating. She felt like an old friend coming home. Only Rachel didn’t know she was an old friend, which is how it goes with one-way relationships.
Rachel and I had a radio relationship. When she started out on a local talk radio show (WRSI, she was host of The Big Breakfast), I timed my commute to a job at a state university so that I could hear 45 minutes of pure, wicked witty Rachel. I discovered her, I’m sure I did. I told all who would listen about the giant brain of Rachel Maddow who had a Ph.D. from Oxford and was funny as well as red-hot smart. And Liberal, did I say that? How wondrous to have our own liberal talk radio gal.
So there she was at Chapin Auditorium, talking to 1400 adoring fans, who had also purchased her brand new book. Some people even bought the legal limit of three books. We were sternly warned that “Ms. Maddow will be signing her signature only. No posed photographs, no inscriptions.”
I waited in the very long line while she signed her new book and I started to think what it must be like to sign your name at least 1400 times in one night, to have to say “Hi” 1400 times, and what would it be like to have a standing ovation just for walking out on a stage. As I inched along in the line, I wondered if we have already loved her too much, expected perfection from her, and if we had already taken away what all of us value above all else, our privacy. I thought about saying, “Hey Rachel, I used to listen to you on The Big Breakfast,” but instead, I slid the open book in front of her to sign. She’ll never know what buddies we used to be as I drove to work.
Rachel and I had a radio relationship. When she started out on a local talk radio show (WRSI, she was host of The Big Breakfast), I timed my commute to a job at a state university so that I could hear 45 minutes of pure, wicked witty Rachel. I discovered her, I’m sure I did. I told all who would listen about the giant brain of Rachel Maddow who had a Ph.D. from Oxford and was funny as well as red-hot smart. And Liberal, did I say that? How wondrous to have our own liberal talk radio gal.
So there she was at Chapin Auditorium, talking to 1400 adoring fans, who had also purchased her brand new book. Some people even bought the legal limit of three books. We were sternly warned that “Ms. Maddow will be signing her signature only. No posed photographs, no inscriptions.”
I waited in the very long line while she signed her new book and I started to think what it must be like to sign your name at least 1400 times in one night, to have to say “Hi” 1400 times, and what would it be like to have a standing ovation just for walking out on a stage. As I inched along in the line, I wondered if we have already loved her too much, expected perfection from her, and if we had already taken away what all of us value above all else, our privacy. I thought about saying, “Hey Rachel, I used to listen to you on The Big Breakfast,” but instead, I slid the open book in front of her to sign. She’ll never know what buddies we used to be as I drove to work.
April 16, 2012
RACHEL MADDOW: DRIFTING
I couldn�t wait to see Rachel Maddow when she came to Mt. Holyoke College this month. I was one of the first 100 people to reserve a ticket; a very modest $5 secured my place in general seating. She felt like an old friend coming home. Only Rachel didn�t know she was an old
April 4, 2012
WHAT YOGA TEACHERS DO AFTER THE LAST NAMASTE
Have you ever wondered what yoga teachers do after all the students leave class and the teachers are left in a great big studio? Well sometimes they become eight years old again and they play. One year at a writing and yoga retreat in Guatemala, I was Charles MacInerney�s yoga assistant. His inner
WHAT YOGA TEACHES DO AFTER THE LAST NAMASTE
Have you ever wondered what yoga teachers do after all the students leave class and the teachers are left in a great big studio? Well sometimes they become eight years old again and they play. One year at a writing and yoga retreat in Guatemala, I was Charles MacInerney
March 31, 2012
Hachiko: A story of loyalty and devotion - Guest blog by Lesl�a Newman
Lesl�a Newman is the author of 60 books including A Letter to Harvey Milk, Nobody's Mother, Hachiko Waits, Write from the Heart, The Boy Who Cried Fabulous, The Best Cat in the World, and Heather Has Two Mommies. She is a faculty mentor at Spalding University�s brief residency MFA in Writing program.
Sometimes, as my friend Patricia MacLachlan, author of Sarah, Plain and Tall, likes to say, if a writer is very lucky, a story comes along and taps her on the shoulder.
On day I felt a tap and turned around. I saw a paw. A very large paw. It belonged to Hachiko, the most
Sometimes, as my friend Patricia MacLachlan, author of Sarah, Plain and Tall, likes to say, if a writer is very lucky, a story comes along and taps her on the shoulder.
On day I felt a tap and turned around. I saw a paw. A very large paw. It belonged to Hachiko, the most
