Reading Under the Covers

My father, the actor Lionel Stander, would have been 109 years old yesterday. Though he died in 1994, his indelible presence and words live on.
In mid-October I was contacted by Scott Dawson, who was going to play my dad in a staged reading of the Eric Bentley play, "Are You Now or Have You Ever Been?" in Ithaca on November 6. Mr. Dawson wrote in an email, "The timing of the reading is especially...

This juvenile (I think) ruby-throated hummingbird has been perched on the feeder outside my window for some two hours. Unlike adult hummers and larger birds, such as finches, it doesn't care how close I get to the window in my bright red shirt, and is...

The spring book festival season is underway. As a public service, here is a list of bad behavior I've observed and/or had to contend with.
Panel Moderator:
Wait to contact panelists till two days before the event—or not at all.

After more than a year of silence, I thought my father's 106th birthday would be a good day to start posting to this blog again. Especially since I acquired this photo yesterday.
One would think that the headline for the caption that ran with the above photo would be something like "Oh, You Kids!" But one would be very wrong. Here's what's on the other side, date stamped Aug 6 1940:...