Freesia Lane

There Goes the Neighborhood

I have to move. I have come to realize over the past few years that you must surround yourself with people who elevate you, who make you feel good about yourself, your accomplishments, and your potential. This doesn’t mean you should never be challenged by friends, co-workers, and acquaintances who may outshine you; but the distance between you cannot be akin to the miles between the sun and the moon.

But I’ll come to the point: Here is a picture of ...read more

My Mom

My mom died. I haven’t written my blog in a while because she is gone, and I just don’t know how to make things seem normal when they are not. How can I possibly write Freesia Lane as if nothing has changed when everything has changed forever? I recognize that everyone’s mother dies. I think they call it the Cycle of Life, and I used to offer that phrase to others as a consolation. But now it seems superficial and ...read more

Meet Lily, Sesame Street’s Newest Resident

I have been a Sesame Street fan for many a moon. I love that it gives inner city kids a partial leg up on learning that they might otherwise not have had. Sesame Street debuted in the sixties, the brainchild of Jason Epstein and Joan Cooney, who wanted the kids in Harlem to have the same skill set as the kids on Park Avenue. So they brought them Bert and Ernie, Miss Piggy, and Kermit the Frog (my personal favorite), ...read more

Dear Bank of America

Dear Bank of America,

Let me get this straight. I put my money in your bank. Then, if I want to take my money out of your bank, I have to pay you $5? Really? Do you have a bridge in Brooklyn you can sell me?

I remember when they first started selling water in bottles, people thought it would never fly. And now that the Poland Springs have run dry and the label admits that the water comes from faucets in ...read more

Movie Review: Moneyball

I love this movie. I’m going to go see it again, and then maybe one more time. It’s a chick flick with no romantic interest. Go figure. That alone makes it unique. It’s the story of David and Goliath, only they are baseball teams. It’s the story of a broken family. It’s a story of dreams unfulfilled. It’s a story about working together. It’s a story about believing you are right when there is no precedent for your ideas. So ...read more

I Hate Yoga

I hate Yoga. No, I really mean I hate it. I hate the holier-than-thou attitude of those who practice it, and the way they insinuate that they are better inside because they do it. I hate the soft way people talk while they’re doing it. I hate that the teachers walk around the room and talk about breathing all the time, as if that is going to rid me of the results of the pints and pints of coffee ice ...read more

The Bastardization of America’s Food

I was at dinner the other night with my cousin and his family. His girlfriend’s son is working on his International baccalaureate degree (he’s a junior in high school), so obviously the conversation would go in a direction of cultural and intellectual enrichment. We started to talk about Oreo Cookies versus Hydrox Cookies.

I pointed out that Oreos are not as good as Hydrox.

“Hydrox are better; the outer shell is crunchier. I don’t like the softness of the Oreo shell. And can we ...read more

Fragging

I know. I never heard of it either, but not only is fragging a real thing, it’s a really awful thing.

I am in a screenwriter’s group. (Ok, although I’m in this group, I haven’t presented my screenplay yet. But writing it as if I were really ready to accept my Academy Award is tons of fun.) Last night, someone who had been in the military in Afghanistan was presenting his script and talking about how a new officer can come ...read more

Troy Davis

I never heard of him until this week, and now he’s dead. Troy Davis, a man of color, convicted of shooting an off-duty cop moonlighting as a security guard on a long-ago dark night in Georgia, was put to death by lethal injection on a gurney with a bunch of people watching. Who are we as a people?

Troy was no saint, although in recent pictures he looks like a studious man from law school—calm, clear-eyed, and full of strength. He ...read more

My 9/11

I wrote this piece ten years ago, in the weeks following 9/11. Nothing has changed for me.

I have been a committed atheist for forty-eight years, never wavering in my firm belief that God makes a wonderful crutch, a way to avoid responsibility for our part in life’s suffering. At first, when the towers fell along with everyone in them, my anger and pain sang of a Godless heap where the southern tip of Manhattan meets the river. Over the next ...read more