West of the Moon

Archive for December, 2007

good fences.

When I was growing up, I knew all of our neighbors, and we all knew each others’ business. I don’t want this to sound all halcyon-days rural-utopia; I grew up deep in the heart of suburbia, and I think that the local culture on our street was an exception rather than the rule, even [...]

Tags: berkeley, neighborhood, new jersey, personal history

Regrouping, miscellaneous.

There’s something deeply satisfying about taking a day or two at year’s end to regroup, reorganize, reflect. In high school and college, I used to set aside time at New Year’s to re-read all of my old journals and diaries; that tradition stopped when I stopped keeping a diary, but I still like the [...]

Tags: christmas, strange horizons

Feast of the Two Fishes

You know how some family traditions don’t even really look like family traditions until you get some distance from them? If it’s just what everyone does, you don’t even notice. I’ve said before that I never really felt Italian until I left New Jersey; after leaving the East Coast entirely, I’ve felt more [...]

Tags: christmas, comedy of errors, family, food

Three shopping days.

Hash browns.
Originally uploaded by Susan Groppi
Bette’s is one of those places that’s crowded even on slow days, sitting right in the middle of the brunch culture around here, Bette’s and Mama’s and Rick & Ann’s and Lois the Pie Queen, a handful of other places. This particular Saturday, three days before Christmas in the [...]

Tags: christmas, food, photos, shopping

Behind the Scenes, or, the real reason the SH podcast updates so infrequently.

This week’s issue of Strange Horizons is the last issue for 2007–our regular end-of-year hiatus is two weeks this year, for arcane calendaring reasons. This week’s issue also has a new episode of the podcast, featuring an interview with Maggie Hogarth, in which we have a great time talking about how the internet is [...]

Tags: podcast, strange horizons, technical difficulties

Scene from a family holiday.

The scene: it’s Thanksgiving, I’m in New Jersey with my family, and it’s exactly what I wanted the day to be. Including all the strange interludes.
Mid-afternoon, we’re still a couple of hours away from turkey, but the appetizer courses are in full swing. The uncles are watching television in the living room, and [...]

Tags: family, family history, personal history, thanksgiving