Author: michardillo
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Poetry 101
It’s early April and a damp, gloomy day out. Yet, in spite of the temperature being in the 40’s this morning, signs of spring are visible. When driving my daughter to the metro today I pointed out to her the forsythia in full bloom up and down both sides of the street. I told her…
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Cradle to Grave with Mary
My mother told me when I was a young girl that when her mother lay dying in a hospital bed, drifting in and out of consciousness, she would say that the children were coming to get her. My mother asked her, “What children?” She then told my mom that the children of Fatima were coming to…
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In Other News This Week…
It’s been a busy week for the international news media. A series of Saudi-led strikes pounded rebel targets in Yemen. Germanwings Flight 9525 crashed in the French Alps, killing all 150 people aboard, and as of now, it appears to have been brought down at the hands of the co-pilot. American Amanda Knox’s second trial for…
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Dates or a “Date”?
My daughter once told me about a friend of hers, “He’s not a very adventurous eater like we are, Mom.” To say I am an adventurous eater is an understatement. I will taste just about anything. I only have a few things on my “don’t eat” list: eggs (unless they are well-incorporated into a recipe,…
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Ten Close Encounters of the Famous Kind – Part One
When you are not famous, a chance encounter with a famous person is exciting. I’m not famous and this has happened to me quite a few times. Some have entailed casual conversation, while others have been mere “run-ins”. Most of these encounters have occurred in Louisiana, where I was born and raised. Some have occurred…
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How “WE” Changed the World
In a few weeks I will be passing out copies of our next book to read and study in 8th grade literature, Sir Arthur Conan Doyle’s masterpiece, The Hound of the Baskervilles. It is one of my favorite books and I love teaching it. Along with teaching this great mystery and covering literary elements like…
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Is Stacy There?
Several years ago a series of events occurred that started me thinking about the very human desire we all have to look into our past lives and track down those whose paths we once crossed. This particular incident occurred just before Thanksgiving in 2009. Here’s how it unfolded. Brrrrinnnngggg. Brrrrinnnngggg. Slapping furiously at the alarm…
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A Narrow Sliver of Land
We all have our Proust moments: the singular bite of something that we loved and cherished in our childhood, re-tasted later as an adult, transporting us back in time to a particularly fond memory. Truman Capote, in his semi-autobiographical short story “A Christmas Memory”, describes in great detail the food of his childhood in the…
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Links to Faith and Family
Every morning, I instinctively reach up to feel for the rose gold chain and cross around my neck. I never take it off. It is more than just a sign of my faith; those gold links are a connection to my mother’s family in Scotland. In 1997 my mother’s first cousin, Anna Liddell, came from…
Michelle Blanchard Ardillo 