Author Archives: advicefrommarta

How to Make a PB&J

Posted on March 8, 2023 by advicefrommarta

I have heard that a frequent job interview question for engineers is to explain how to make a peanut butter and jelly sandwich. Although I will never be an engineer, I do know how to make a peanut butter and … Continue reading →

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Elon Musk Is Everyone’s Bad Boss

Posted on November 19, 2022 by advicefrommarta

Once in my early 20s I quit a retail job because my boss called a mandatory staff meeting on an evening that I had a date. When I think back on it, I realize how privileged and possibly foolish it … Continue reading →

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It Tolls for Thee

Posted on September 12, 2022 by advicefrommarta

I did not have strong feelings when Queen Elizabeth II died. I understood the people who celebrated the end of the last remaining vestige of the British Empire. I understood the people who mourned the end of an era. But … Continue reading →

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Bearing Fruit

Posted on July 27, 2022 by advicefrommarta

Once, when my grandfather was a little boy, he walked with his grandfather, the exquisitely named Shlomo Zalman, from one shtetl to the next. On the way there, Shlomo Zalman gave my grandfather half a banana and then carefully wrapped … Continue reading →

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An Early Summer Night’s Dream

Posted on June 17, 2022 by advicefrommarta

(fiction) There is a kind of summer evening, just after the sun starts to go down. Children run around looking for fireflies. Neighbors slowly move away from their airconditioned houses, eager to feel the air while they can. They sit … Continue reading →

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Leaving

Posted on April 8, 2022 by advicefrommarta

The other day my dentist asked me if I had plans for the summer. I told him I’d be driving my daughter to college in upstate New York, by myself. He told me that his daughter went to college in … Continue reading →

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True Love

Posted on February 27, 2022 by advicefrommarta

Shortly after Valentine’s Day a friend of my daughter’s interviewed me about love. The two are working on a class project, a documentary theater piece. Each person in the class is interviewing three people of three different generations about love. … Continue reading →

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Expiration Dates

Posted on December 28, 2021 by advicefrommarta

I am cleaning out my mother’s pantry. Occasionally, when I find a particularly old expiration date, I stop to text my sister or a friend with news of what I’ve found. Granola – 2019 Bean Dip – 2018 In 1991 … Continue reading →

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Mr. Peabody’s Coal Train

Posted on December 12, 2021 by advicefrommarta

It’s Friday night, and my son is taking the El to a high school basketball game. It is “the big game” with their “cross-town rivals.” The trash talk online is brutal. He is wearing his school colors, a bright orange … Continue reading →

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Three Women on a Train

Posted on November 30, 2021 by advicefrommarta

I rode the El yesterday. It was the first time in a while. When I first moved to Chicago and worked downtown, the El was my reading time. It was part of my fantasy life of living in a big … Continue reading →

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