LaVonne Neff > LIVELY DUST

A decade ago I published my Top 10 on turning 60 . Most of the items on my list are truer now than ever. Septuagenarians are much less lik...

In this oddest of presidential election seasons, one odd fact is rarely mentioned: the curious age spread of the candidates. At their firs...

My review of A Spool of Blue Thread was published in the April 29, 2015, issue of The Christian Century .  I especially enjoyed that novel...

David recently posted this picture on Facebook along with a line from the 1964 hit  "Today" (New Christy Minstrels):   "I...

[A. Casolani, 16th century] We are househunting. Will our new place be a relatively new condo with no exterior maintenance, plenty of ...

[Stages of a Man's Life from the Cradle to the Grave, c. 1848] Yesterday on Facebook I referred to my daughters, who are in their ea...

[A toast to a new era] Yesterday I turned 65. Twelve days ago my Medicare insurance (parts A, B, D, and supplemental) took effect. An...

My dear friend Cathy Pezdirtz, who still looks young and beautiful though she was twenty-two over half a century ago, absolutely adores Co...

There will be time, there will be time To prepare a face to meet the faces that you meet; There will be time to murder and create, ...

[Working till she drops] A couple of years ago my 40-something cardiologist earnestly told me that the Social Security/Medicare problem ...

"Hormone Therapy Whiplash: Say No to HRT! Say Yes to HRT! Which Is It?" That's the headline of an article by Melanie Hai...

Before yesterday, I had read no books by Christopher Hitchens. I had read about him, to be sure. His name kept popping up everywhere.  ...

In June my husband, who gets lots of review copies unbidden, asked me if I wanted to read Mark Shriver's memoir about his father, Sargen...

"Retirement should involve re-tiring, or putting on new tires and doing even more than before." --Rabbi Shmuley Boteach, who g...

This Sunday is an important milestone for me. It's the day I no longer risk losing health insurance. I left my last job-with-benefit...

The Andrews Sisters A lot of my Facebook friends are sharing links to the number-one hit song on the day of their birth. Listening to th...

"Susan Jacoby has long made it her project to uncover ill-formed, cynical 'junk thought' and administer a cold dose of reason a...

In certain latitudes there comes a span of time approaching and following the summer solstice, some weeks in all, when the twilights turn lo...

"This is the book I've been looking for," I said to my friend Carol at a book group last night. "I'm so tired of book...

I have to ask myself: am I part of the American majority who wants to scale back government expenses – as long as none of my personal benefi...