Dear Grandma…

Dear Grandma,
I miss you.  Lately these flashes of memories keep intruding on my day.
Your laugh.  You looked so regal, so classy.  But your laugh was down home, real folk, spilling out of you whenever the smallest opportunity for mirth arose.  How much we laughed, working on your book, our book.  Every Sunday night when I [...]

Vikings, Farmers, and Fiskers: A Day in Oslo

Blood rains from the cloudy web on the broad loom of slaughter.  The web of man, grey as armour, is now being woven; The Valkyries will cross it with a crimson weft.
Okay, not my words!  This comes from the Great Icelandic work, Njal’s Saga, written around 1200 AD. But I thought I’d start with it [...]

And Then She Died

Two years ago on this day, Grandma died. She had a massive stroke the day before and let go on July 3, 2006. She was 92.
As fate would have it, this date is important to our family for another reason. On July 3, 1879, also a Thursday like this year, my grandmother’s grandparents left [...]

Tracing my Family’s Roots: My Trip to the Old Country

Did I mention I’m going to Sweden and Norway in less than three weeks to find my roots?
Yeh, well, I am. I’ve been planning the trip for months — it’s meant to help fill in the gaps in Grandma’s first chapter: “The Old Country.” I’m very excited about going and have been working [...]

Another Grandma Dream: Saving the Pictures

Last night Grandma’s house in California was in imminent danger of burning down. In my dream that is. I was there helping to save everything important in the house. My newish neighbor (here in Massachusetts) was sitting with Grandma, comforting her. He is a minister of the more traditional variety and [...]

After a Brief Intermission… Getting Back to Grandma’s Book

So, yeh, I’ve kinda had a hard time actually writing Grandma’s book this year (meaning academic calendar).  At first it was pure grief.  I couldn’t face it.  Then it was exhaustion.  Then it was other things like galivanting around in the Southern Hemisphere or editing an essay collection.  But the time has clearly come for [...]

Grandma’s House; or, The Fine Art of Decorating

I used to love touring Grandma’s house. It was filled to the brim with all manner of bizzare items accumulated over the years. The glass eyes of the dead deer head on a panelled wall of the family room commanded me to pet the carcass. Sick, I know, but I found it necessary [...]

“Our group will be traveling to the most remote villages”: Peru update

The plane tickets have been purchased. It’s a done deal. What, am I crazy? I’ve been having mega-second thoughts this week. But it’s over. Finito. I have to go now.
So, what’s the big deal, you ask?
Itinerary: Day one we attend a wedding of a former [...]

Lefse-Making: A Legacy, a Recipe, and a Factory

Don’t they advise bloggers not to post long posts? Sorry. This is a long one, but at the end, you get a tasty treat…
I don’t remember a time when I didn’t know what lefse was and how to make it. I’m sure that before I was seven, I must have been lefse-ignorant, [...]

Excerpt from Grandma’s Book: Introduction

I thought I’d share an excerpt from what I wrote the other day. It’s merely a draft, but I did think it important to write this stuff down. My vision for the introduction: to help the reader to understand what kind of book he/she is about to read, as well as (hopefully) to [...]