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my first sunday morning without Lou Reed
For as long as I can remember, I have known that Holly came from Miami, FLA and hitch-hiked her way across the USA; that little Joe never gave it away; and, that Jackie thought she was James Dean for a day. As young as I was when I first heard Lou Reed’s “Walk on the Wild Side,” I cannot possibly have known what the hustle here and the hustle there was all about. Had I known, I probably wouldn’t have been singing it within earshot of my parents – after all, this was the early 1970s in provincial Northern Ireland. Thinking about this reminds me of a story Neil Gaiman tells about how…
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Art, Awesome Women, Breast Cancer Treatment, Breast Reconstruction, Culture of breast cancer, Feminism, Kellys Cellars, Mammograms, Mother Daughter Relationship, Nipple Tattoo, P.INK DAY 2013, Pink Ribbon Culture, Pink Ribbons, Pinkwashing, Sexism, Shopping, Themes of childhood, Tina Fey, Writers
Tattoo. Taboo. Oh how we judge you . . .
NOTE: On October 20, 2013, as Breast Cancer Awareness Month winds down, the pictures on this post offended someone so much that she or he reported them to Facebook and asked to have them removed. And I thought the cancer was the offensive thing. The story that follows is mine. I chose to share it. I make no apology. I did not choose the cancer that inspired its telling. I don’t remember when tattoos became mainstream, only that I was late to the party. I had never considered a tattoo for myself mainly because of its permanence, the very thing that others find appealing. For the longest time, my mother, the Queen…
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Aging, Antrim Guardian, Artisans, Being young, Belfast, Birthdays, Coming of age, Family, Fathers and sons, McClelland Irish Library, Memoir, Northern Ireland, Northern Ireland Culture, Phoenix Landmarks, Poetry, Seamus Heaney, Themes of childhood, Writing
for my dad on his 75th birthday
I write a bi-weekly column for my hometown newspaper, The Antrim Guardian. I love knowing that my parents wait to see what I’m going to write about next, so it was a treat to imagine my dad opening the paper a couple of weeks ago to find that it was all about him. Happy Birthday, Da.
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Blogging, Breast Cancer Awareness Month, Breast Cancer Treatment, Cancer Language, Culture of breast cancer, Diagnosis, Early Detection, Language of Cancer, Mammograms, Pink Ribbon Culture, Pink Ribbons, Shopping, Susan G Komen Foundation
a pink ribbon made a blogger out of me
“My New Pink Ribbon” Nov. 9, 2011 I have shown only a little restraint in not searching every corner of the internet for information about fine needle aspirations and core needle biopsies of the breast. The latter sounds more ominous. November 9th 2011 at 1:30pm, I was scheduled to go to Scottsdale Healthcare for a core needle biopsy. Once again supine in a small room illuminated only by images on an ultrasound monitor and the kindness of two technicians, I was out of sync, discombobulated presumably by the not knowing what was in store for me. More in denial than fear, however, I had not brought my husband with me nor…
