January 17, 2017 is an appropriate date to announce the engagement of Amelia Altalena Solkoff to Javier Blanco. The date marks the 1925 birthday of Amelia’s late paternal grandmother Miriam Pell Schmerler zt”l who was close to Amelia and her sister Joanna. Amelia teaches English in Pontevedra, Spain (on the Portuguese border) where she is also an enthusiastic […]
Joanna Solkoff
December motto plus optional isolation
Dr. Jeniffer Simon, a caring and experienced urologist, Geissinger Medical Center, State College PA showed me on her computer this image–a cancerous tumor surrounding my right kidney, referring me to Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center in New York City. “Unless you have surgery quickly, you will be dead in 10 years.” The date: April 5, 2013, […]
July 24 Update: Joanna’s wedding in N. C. horse barn –Volume I, Issue 2.5
On a personal note: I was diagnosed as having kidney cancer in April. Three weeks from today I have an operation to remove the risk at Sloan Kettering Cancer Center in New York City. The Big Apple. “The New York Times Building”, 2000-2007, as: “© Renzo Piano Building Workshop. Courtesy Gagosian Gallery. Photography by Denancé Michel.” ++++ Then, I have to recover […]
Rodeo has enhanced my life—a cancer therapy digression
I swear out there ain`t where you ought to be / So catch a ride, catch a cab / Don`t you know I miss you bad / But don`t you walk to me / Baby run…. –George Strait This is Taylor Swift singing her favorite George Strait song: Run Consider the performance a teaser not […]
The danger of “living wills”–a post surgical analysis
Of all my many preparations for surgery–including signing up for Premium Spotify [worth it]–creating a valid Living Will exercised far too much time. I can and may list the valid rationale for having a Living Will, which here in Pennsylvania is called officially a Durable Power of Attorney. Durable means (as lovers of the English […]
Raquel Welch, “Sex Goddess of the 1970s,” and my younger daughter Amelia
March 10, 2013, State College, PA., 7:40 PM. I was asked this afternoon why I nearly went crazy before each of my daughters was born. The lapse of judgment—mentioning Raquel Welch to my 22 year-old daughter this afternoon—is a good example of why I worried about becoming a father. As anyone who is a parent […]
A classic is a book no one reads, Mark Twain said
I had pneumonia until three days ago when I was discharged from the hospital. These days, my health has been doing well: In May, I attended my younger daughter Amelia Altalena’s graduation from college. In June, I spent two weeks in McKeesport, PA seeing how low-cost high-tech housing for elderly and disabled individuals can be […]
Joanna, my elder daughter, is engaged to be married
August 15, 2012: Today, my elder daughter Joanna Marie Solkoff became engaged to be married to Jade Kosmos Phillips.