(Chatter Letter From the Editor: February) The iconic off-Broadway comedy “The Fantasticks” is the world’s longest-running musical. It opened May 3, 1960 and closed January 13, 2002 after 17,162 performances. (The show was revived in 2006 and is still playing today at the Snapple Theater Center in NYC.) Its breezy score, intimate staging, and whimsical…   read more

(Preview: January Chatter Letter from the Editor) Well, it’s 2012. The end of the world as we know it. Though I am optimistic the feral cats in our neighborhood will survive anything the Mayans can throw at them. It’s funny how at the beginning of 2012, we’re thinking about the end of civilization. Or maybe…   read more

(Chatter Letter from the Editor, December 2011) My mother is notorious for keeping every single ornament she has ever had the privilege of owning. She’s not a collector, really, and calling her an ornament hoarder would be crass; if anything, she is an ornament Advocate. She advocates on behalf of the broken angel, the faceless…   read more

If there’s any iconic character in American TV that epitomizes boundless energy, it’s Cosmo Kramer from Seinfeld. Peter Goddard of The Toronto Star has observed, “[Kramer's personality] is hard to pin down. A New York Times profile described Kramer as ‘cartoonlike’ in a piece with a headline calling him ‘Seinfeld’s craziest neighbor’…But he’s more than…   read more

(Chatter letter from the Editor, October) My husband and I recently met with a nutritionist. Her services were offered at my husband’s workplace, and since we are ones to take full advantage of anything and everything — even free humiliation — we sat down to discuss the failings of our caloric intake with Amber, a…   read more

(Preview: Chatter letter from the Editor, September 2011.) Right now there is a man with a bad attitude in my house. I don’t know why he is so testy, but I am grateful for the opportunity to use the word “testy.” Well, maybe I do have a small idea. He is, at this very moment,…   read more

(Preview: August Chatter Letter from the Editor) The only concept more depressing than, say, a Gluten-Free Cookie Monster, is the idea that we’re alone. God may be very much alive, very good, very powerful, but he isn’t very much involved. Why would he do something for me when children are dying of typhoid fever in…   read more

(Sneak peek: Chatter editor letter for July) My son believes he is God’s gift to me in the kitchen. He pours the cheese powder for macaroni. He stirs the ground beef for spaghetti sauce. He carries his plate to the table. These tasks are his birthright. Before he came into the world, these tasks were…   read more

(Chatter letter from the editor, June 2011) I read in a (very classy) tabloid how Matthew McConaughey admits when he visits a buffet that he loses all sense of physical restraint and consumes as much food as his gorgeous digestive tract can handle. (I don’t think HE thinks his digestive tract is gorgeous, but let’s…   read more

(Chatter letter from the editor, May 2011) But he was pierced for our transgressions, he was crushed for our iniquities; the punishment that brought us peace was on him, and by his wounds we are healed. Isaiah 53:5 Prince William and Catherine Middleton just got married, by the way. Just in case you have been…   read more