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Hair-raising questions ILLUSTRATION: MANJULA PADMANABHAN× My Chennai sister sent me a photograph of a young man whose hair looked as if it had exploded out of the top of his head. “What d’you think?” she asked me and our Hartford sister. “What shall we call this style?” The three of us had fun trying out suitable names: Mushroom Cloud, Pouffant, Geyser-head. Whatever we called it, however, we all agreed that even though the guy’s face is attractive, his hair looks awful. Why do we care what people do with their follicular growths? I’ve spent a long time puzzling over this. Man...

Scrambling ILLUSTRATION: MANJULA PADMANABHAN× Just as I’m whipping two eggs in a bowl, there’s a scratching at my kitchen window. “Aha!” says Rockette, my wild raccoon friend. “Making cookies again, I hope!” “Nope,” I say, “but it’s an omelette.” Rockette wrinkles her furry white snout. “Grr-rrr!” she snarls. “Eggs are perfectly good straight from the shell! You humans are always messing things up with your frying pans and nasty hot fires!” I don’t remind her about the hot ovens in which cookies are baked. Instead I explain that I’m attempting something new...

Night Voice ILLUSTRATION: MANJULA PADMANABHAN× Friday evening. I get home from the Gallery feeling totally pumped! But I have a writing deadline to meet and 30 minutes to spend on the “glider” — an exercise machine that looks like a pair of short skis suspended from a frame. Plus, I have to be up in time to look presentable for a Zoom call at 8 am. One thing leads to another and suddenly it’s 12.30. But I’ve not yet used the glider! In order to motivate myself to glide, I listen to crime fiction novels on Audible. The problem with this plan is that, inevitably, I can’t stop list...

When I was small — meaning, in the single digits — my two older sisters and I had tremendous fun building card houses.There are two basic construction methods: Arches and flats. An arch is made by lea

Last week, at the DeBlois Gallery where I’m a member, we begin work on a New Project. It’s a form of self-expression I’d never heard of before: Tape Art. It involves, as might be obvious, sticky tape.