15 March 2026 On this Ides of March Sunday, I’m choosing to contemplate the fate of Joan of Arc.   One of the most fascinating aspects of my research for THE DAWN was the discovery of the use of Jeanne d’Arc by both the Free French and the Vichy regime as the cultural and national heroine of France.  Of course, it was only Charles de Gaulle who used the Cross of Lorraine for the official flag of les Forces françaises libres, the Free French Forces.  He reputedly, or his hand

8 March 2026 Yesterday, I took a break from translating into French this section on the Warrior Class in the America of the 1930s and 1940s, as viewed by U.S. Army Lt. Colonel Arthur Boucher Carmichael, recast as Artur Boucher, Free French agent (spy):   Artur considered George S. Patton a cut above many other generals.  Patton was a soldier who represented a warrior class best known to the ancient Scots; Artur believed that this stalwart American general would serve as an ex

St. Patrick’s Day 2026 I’ll Take You Home Again, Kathleen by Thomas Paine Westendorf I’ll take you home again, Kathleen   Across the ocean wild and wide   To where your heart has ever been   Since first you were his bonnie bride.   The roses all have left your cheek   I have watched them fade away and die.   Your voice is sad when e’er you speak   And tears bedim your loving eyes. Oh, I will take you back, Kathleen,   to where your heart will feel no pain   And when those fie

March 2026 Only Once by Clive Weslake When I was very young and life was new   My world was always full of dreams   Growing old was far away   No tomorrow, just today   Nothing is the way it seems.   I knew that one day I would fall in love   The way young people always do   How could I know what lay ahead? Life played games with me instead.   I didn’t count on meeting you.   Only once   I always thought that love came only once   That when you fell,   You fell in love to sta

March 2026 I Know by Edith Lindeman and Carl Stutz I know what it means to be lost in the dark.   I know what it means to be tossed in the storm.   I have walked alone with a heart of stone   and despair   too heavy for tears.   But you caught my heart and you taught my heart   to forget the doubts and the fears.   And now   that I know   the joy of your love,   My head is high, I can face the sky   And know there is a heaven here below   I know   For you I could die   For yo

March 2026 Love Me With All Your Heart by Carlos Rigual, Mario Rigual and Michael Vaughn; French translation by Debra Milligan Love me with all of your heart,   That’s all I want, love   Love me with all of your heart   Or not at all.   Just promise me this, that you’ll give me   all your kisses   Every winter Every summer Every fall.   When we are far apart or when you’re near me   Love me with all your heart As I love you.   Don’t give me your love for a moment or an hour  

27 February 2026 Among my relaxation/downtime activities from The Art of Writing, is my scanning of the increasingly paywalled Internet for chunks of accurate info before they go POOF into the ethersphere.   It’s a fascinating free-form floating mental, and emotional, endeavour on my part.  You could call it an adventure, though I do not.  And Dear Husband certainly does not.  As I read to him the history of the English Phonebox — the ginormously aesthetic equivalent of the M

Late February 2026 If I Loved You Music by Richard Rodgers, with lyrics by Oscar Hammerstein II If I loved you Time and again I would try to say   All I want you to know.   If I loved you,   Words wouldn’t come in an easy way   Round in circles I’d go   Longing to tell you, but afraid and shy,   I’d let my foolish chances pass me by. Soon You’d leave me,   Off you would go in the mist of day   Never, never to know   How I loved you   If I loved you.   If I loved you, Time and

Friday the 13th, February 2026 I could be superstitious about Friday the 13th this year, but since there will be two of them, two months in a row, I’m not a bit concerned about the bad luck.   The bad luck isn’t something I necessarily believe in, although I certainly have a sense of bad karma coming to those who have earned it.  It’s the Calvinist (Dutch) in me, but my Scots-Irish ancestry also gains a palpable sense of comeuppance for those snooty miserable sinners.   The p

Valentine’s Day 2026 Stumblin’ In by Mike Chapman and Nicky Chinn; changes by Debra Milligan Our live is alive, and so we begin   Foolishly laying out hearts on the table,   Stumblin’ in.   Our love is a flame, burning within   Now and then,   Firelight will catch us,   Stumblin’ in. Wherever you go, Whatever you do,   Please know these reckless thoughts of mine   Are following you.   I’ve fallen for you, whatever you do, Cause, baby, you showed me so many things that I never

5 February 2026 My nation, America, has been through quite an ordeal this past year.  Any patriot discovering the treachery of her elected officials is bound to evoke emotions of a negative tenor.   And, yet, as I look back upon the years that I call ‘The Golden Hour” — The Reagan Years — I realize how young we were as a nation.  For many years, starting with those of the abysmal George “Read My Lips” HW Bush , through the obscene 2-fer phase of Bubba and his lovely wife Brun

28 January 2026 There was a time, long ago, when I was in my teens and twenties, that I intentionally permitted myself to be misunderstood.  I’d like to say it was for the greater good, as I’ve watched this situation transpire with our heroic President; but it was for the sake of survival, which, one could say, is a greater good.   Once a person has submitted herself, and subjected herself, to that unkind treatment of her self, there’s not much that she can do to undo it.  I

28 January 2026 This morning, I put out the Spring Florals in my house, Larkhaven.  Dear Hubby came home from his post-sunrise constitutional with Jolene, and I informed him of my clean-sweep through the first floor of the house, complete with wet-rag and drying towel.   “I hope you didn’t dust too much,” he avowed.   “Oh, no.  I’m leaving the heavy stuff for you.”   Especially since you’ve found and purchased all kinds of gizmos to more efficiently perform the tasks that I’d

February 2026 Dream a Little Dream of Me Music by Fabian Andre and Wilbur Schwandt, with lyrics by Gus Kahn; French translation by Debra Milligan Stars shining bright above you   Night breezes seem to whisper, “I love you,”   Bird singing in the sycamore tree Dream a little dream of me.   Say “nightie night” and kiss me   Just hold me tight and tell me   You’ll miss me.   While I’m alone and blue as can be Dream a little dream of me.   Stars fading, but I linger on, dear,   S

23 January 2026 I can say with complete certainty that I would not have written these paragraphs that begin Chapter 62 of THE DAWN, had I not been living in the Peach House in Newcastle, and searching to find a way to move out of it — permanently — from 2008-2018.   The translation of these words from English into French is more cumbersome, and, too often, frustrating because the French language, and the French culture, do not have any terms that are equivalent for:   pioneer

22 January 2026 Among my New Year’s projects has been the reclaiming of my Mud Room/Laundry Room from Jolene, Jolene Du Pré, to be specific.   This room became the Pup Room when she entered my life (my world) in early September 2023, and she’s immensely enjoyed having full run of the space.  She doesn’t spend as much time in there, now that she has full run of the entire house and the acreage surrounding it.   I therefore thought that I could set up this interior real-estate

Late January 2026 Blue Bayou by Roy Orbison and Joe Melson I feel so bad, I got a worried mind   I’m so lonesome all the time   Since I left my baby behind   on Blue Bayou.   Saving nickels, saving dimes   Working till the sun don’t shine Looking forward to happier times   on Blue Bayou.   I’m going back   Someday,   Come what may   to Blue Bayou Where the folks are fine and the world is mine   on Blue Bayou   Where those fishing boats with their sails afloat   If I could onl

Mid-January 2026 June in January Music by Ralph Rainger, with lyrics by Leo Robin It's June in January Because I'm in love   It always is spring in my heart   With you in my arms.   The snow is just white blossoms   That fall from above   And here is the reason, my dear: Your magical charms.   The night is cold The trees are bare   But I can feel   the scent of roses in the air.   It's June in January,   But only because I'm in love with you. The night is cold The trees are b

January 2026 Mornings Music and Lyrics by Debra Tanis I have mornings, more than mornings I have dawnings now   Without you.   And if you can’t recall   How it was at all   Then why should I feel blue?   I get longings   But they’re warnings that I’m better off without you   And if you didn’t know How I loved you so Then why should I feel blue? For all the times I came, I knew I couldn’t stay   Yet all the nights we knew How could you go away?   There’s tomorrow I can’t borro

January 2026 This recipe comes from a childhood friend.  Clara was a grammar school classmate; she was gracious enough to share a family tradition with our Cooking Class in a public school in Northern Northern New Jersey.  She and her Cuban family had just fled the warm collectivism of Fidel Castro for those chilly waters of rugged individualism that, once-upon-a-time, proudly beckoned them to New York Harbor.   I’ve updated her recipe just a bit.  Olive oil is substituted fo