Hadley suggests you get yourself a copy of Ivy And Bean and The Ghost Who Had To Go.  “It’s about a ghost,” Hadley tells me with a dramatic pause, “IN THE TOILET!”  Oh, the giggles, and oh man, that poor haunt.  Here’s a trick I’ve learned about dealing with children’s fears: it is impossible to be afraid of a… View Post

On my goodness my Listen To Your Mother performance is up! Check it out here. Superbuns for life.  Let’s make it a hashtag!

There’s the top of the apartment building on Lake street in Oak Park; the one that’s really more of a tower and you can see most of the Chicago west suburbs from. I was up there one July Fourth with my friend. We’d been on a mission that night to find as many fireworks as possible, not an easy project… View Post

Melted butter and crumbled graham crackers. Perfectly sweet strawberries to be mixed with cranberry juice and dolloped on top of  the graham cracker crust. Steamy cement sidewalks and soggy shady trees. Summer smells like chlorine and Coppertone. Summer smells like salted dough mixed with peanut butter and jelly, apple juice and an open window. It smells like early morning dew… View Post