Category: news is news
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A different time, a different line.
That first year I interned at my first paper, there was a day that always stuck with me for some reason, even after I quit journalism. We were sitting around the conference table, a bunch of us young students, listening to our seasoned head editor. She was talking emphatically about the Line. That included photos…
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What kids (don’t even know they) know.
Sitting with Bebe on the couch. Flipping through a Time magazine. “Tomatoes!” “Yeah! That’s right.” “Balloons!” “Yup.” “Ima!” She points to the photograph of an unidentified woman holding a picture of Arafat Jaradat, the Palestinian prisoner who died while in Israeli custody. And then she repeats it. “Ima!” And points to me.
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Does he realize my face is wet from tears as I kiss him good night?
Sitting just outside the kids’ room, on the cold tiled floor in the hallway, scrolling through articles on my phone. Silently scanning Newtown coverage, reading Newtown stories, seeing Newtown pictures as my son restlessly attempts sleep, deep within his bottom bunk. “Ima, can you tuck me in?” I don’t even bother wiping the tears from…
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Gun violence, mental illness, school shootings: Is my paranoia justified, then?
So I guess I’m not as paranoid as I thought… Or the world has become a more realistic place for people with morbid imaginations like myself… Set your mind back eight years. Remember the Beslan school hostage crisis? The massacre in September 2004, erupting from a local school hostage crisis that lasted a whole three days, including…
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Don’t you forget about me (what it’s like to not hear from you during Israel crises)
I’m hurting. And frustrated. I don’t want to put anyone down. I’m not trying to guilt anyone into feeling anything. I just have an honest question to ask. Why is that I feel… forgotten, or isolated by peeps from abroad? I guess by ‘I’ I’m actually referring to people who live in Israel. People. Not…
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What Gaza rocket attacks look & sound like in southern Israel (kids included)
The mainstream news isn’t reporting it, or when they do, they’re not giving you much of a personal picture. Whether it’s their job or not, or they’re fatigued or not, or this is what the readership wants or not – well, it leaves it up to the rest of us to paint the terrible but…
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My NYTimes debut: experience of an expat Staten Islander during Sandy
My New York Times debut: A journalist found my post on my experience of helplessness as a Staten Island expat, far away during the Hurricane Sandy disaster. After some emails and a phone call, my Staten Island-based mama and I became the lede of his article on New York expats taking action during crisis. Here’s…
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Gasoline is a privilege.
Felt lucky as a I pumped my car with gas last night, with no wait, no lines, no odd-even rationing, and any gas station to choose from. The petrol shortage in New York and New Jersey following Hurricane Sandy is making me consider how it’s probably our future anyway if we don’t collectively do something…
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Heels in Israel, heart in Staten Island
Not over how odd it is to live in the Middle East and watch your North American hometown get knocked around by the Universe. [Hylan Boulevard is a river… I used to cruise along Hylan for Staten Island Advance assignments…] For the past week, my heels have been in Israel, but my heart is in…
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Hurricane Sandy. Gaza rockets. It’s raining, and it’s tragic.
Being a New Yorker outside of New York when disaster strikes is hard. I think we have some sort of mutated DNA that makes us deal with crap in a different way. A New York way. Like Hurricane Irene last year, only yeah, this time New York skepticism didn’t win out. Obviously, this is a…
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The man with a helmet who jumped from space.
‘An astronaut is a man who goes up to space in a spaceship.’ ‘Or a balloon!’ ‘As of today… yes.’