Shrink in the Kitchen

Food is sexy and here I think of the novel “The History of Tom Jones” and the fig scene in the filmed version of “Women In Love,” as well as one moment during my late adolescence in South Plainfield, New Jersey.
As to that moment in NJ: One slice of great, chewy pizza remained on the [...]

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Twice a month I drive from Boston to Hyannis just for the day in order to work at the welfare office–Department of Transitional Assistance (DTA)–interviewing unemployed people who report mental illness that prevents them from being employed.
The drive takes about three and a half hours, round-trip, and is especially harrowing at the juncture of Route [...]

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My father was born and raised in a Bavarian village.  He came alone to New York City as a young adolescent: August, 1941.   When I think of Karl Rossman, in “Amerika,” I see my father: Bewildered, hopeful, and hungry.
Growing up, my sister and I had childhoods decorated with images of food he had lost: [...]

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Back in the day when I was broadcasting weekly on public radio, for which I won a James Beard award (2004), publishers sent me cookbooks for review on-air.  Many cookbooks, hundreds of cookbooks.  Towers grew on my kitchen floor.  Stalagmite recipes.
The covers of the cookbooks are colorful and the typeface enticing.  However, from a practical [...]

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