Susie Bright's Journal

Potzo Balls for the Cure

I made matzo ball soup for the first time. It was inspired by a “potzo” ball soup recipe on a cannabis site. As it turned out, my soup was as delicious as the best Montréal Jewish deli, the most fragrant Brooklyn memory. Really! I was so happy and surprised. I’ll... Read more →

Key of Heaven

Did you know your grandmother Agnes at all? No, she’s a bit of a mystery. She died so young. It wasn’t until my own mother was dying, and cried out in the night for HER grandma, that I realized… huh, mommy didn’t know her mommy either. Was there an inheritance?... Read more →

How Can They Call Themselves Catholic?

I’m not naive about my working class Catholic upbringing in the 60s. The parishes had terrible secrets. There were John Bircher lunatics running the Catholic school I attended. We were accustomed to corporal punishment of the most sadistic kind, and there was terrible shaming of the girls and boys for... Read more →

The Loneliest Generation - What’s That All About?

Today, I read a WSJ report on the twenty-first century epidemic of Boomer generation singletons (1946-1964). The reporter submitted a rigorous argument as to why elder isolation is no joke. Is loneliness different for the Boomers? — or is it just another expression of their privileged malaise? I’m at the... Read more →

Can Opener

“Have you seen the hair conditioner?” No one answered me. “Never mind. I found it.” I couldn’t tell if everyone had left our motel room, or if I was finally on the receiving end of a well-deserved silent treatment. I was a bore and a bitch and all I did... Read more →