Mark Bowden, consummate journalist and author of “Black Hawk Down,” read @ ODU Thursday.

I’ve had a sweet Mother’s Day weekend full of offspring and offspring’s offspring. I’m just back from seeing my daughter.  I spent a few days in California with her, her husband and my 10 month-old grandson, aka Baby Danger. I’m arranging as much face time with the baby as I possibly can before my daughter [...]

Lately I’ve been watching movies.  Two this past week:  Rachel Getting Married starring Anne Hathaway, and I’ve Loved You So Long starring Kristen Scott Thomas.  Both of these films quietly portray the complicated life between siblings, yet my biggest takeaway involves what the films didn’t portray. Flashback. Neither film uses flashback to reveal or illuminate [...]

Here’s how it went:

In the drop-off lane outside the airport, I don’t say goodbye to my six-month old grandson. I say “See you soon.” I’m casual.

And Danger is his middle name.

I lost two important things on Tuesday night:  my electricity and my humanity. But first, I lost my cookies. I had been sick most of the night before, and I woke up Tuesday sunk inside my own feverish skin.  I canceled my classes, and shrouded myself under my fuzzy comforter, creeping out of bed only [...]

I have a friend who doesn’t believe in regrets.  She insists that if I’m happy now, I can’t regret my bad experiences, because I have been taught by my pain and it’s part of what makes me who I am today.  It sounds so pop-psych to me, but she’s smart, and she sets her argument [...]

I’m tired tonight, so I’m posting an older column that I’ll be playing off of in a new post Wednesday. * Can I Still Be a Grandmother Even if I Don’t Believe My Daughter Had Sex? They tell me that I am going to be a grandmother next month.  I guess it could be true.  [...]

It’s the 200th anniversary of the birth of Charles Darwin, and I, for one, am celebrating. Okay, well maybe not celebrating, as in woo-hoo martini party; but I am taking notice. Just by coincidence, I’m reading (for the first time) Richard Dawkin’s 1970′s classic The Selfish Gene.  It was a gift given to my youngest [...]

This week, I’ve been working four close-to-my-heart writing projects, and teaching five college composition courses. Me and the words — we’re tight these days. The only word I’m not involved with lately is: “No,”  as in “No, I’m too busy to do that.”  I think it comes from being a freelancing adjunct consultant — which [...]

Below is my original post, and I have received a bunch of photos, for which I am thankful.  I have received none from Portsmouth yet – so please folks, snap them and send them!  Also, Beach people – keep ‘em coming.  I don’t yet have photos that represent all of the aspects of Virginia Beach.  [...]

“[Your mother] created you, so you always owe her and can never really repay the debt. Being born is like asking Don Corleone for a favor.”  – Dennis Miller * My mother tells me that is wasn’t her intention that my older brother and I be born only sixteen months apart. “But,” she adds. “It [...]

Over the next few months, 24sevencities will attempt to capture the essence of each of the seven cities, and highlight a few of the best places to be and see.  I’ll write these stories, so they’ll have my quirky perspective — but I hope you’ll help me. We’d like to get YOUR point of view, [...]

Last week, I arrived exactly on time at the gynecologist’s office for my yearly poke.  It wasn’t easy – the rush from work in soul-sucking seven cities traffic,  and my anxiety about being even one minute late, combined with my resentment over just how anxious I’ve become about a measly minute.  It’s a paranoia linked [...]

As I just told George, my point in the short article “Novel Ideas” was that literature is not removed from those who reject the genre.  But I never meant to suggest that Hollywood truly loves books.  Hollywood loves books like the wife-beater loves his family: he might think he does, but ego and insecurity have [...]

As I just told George, my point in the short post “Novel Ideas” was that literature is not removed from those who reject the genre.  But I never meant to suggest that Hollywood truly loves books.  Hollywood loves books like the wife-beater loves his family: he might think he does, but ego and insecurity have [...]