Gerty and the Doesn’t-Smell-Like-a-Melon

by Mary E. Lowd

Originally published in Golden Visions Magazine, October 2010

“Lainey kept asking about what the gryphons had been like, and the master told her what he remembered about them. Gerty, however, couldn’t keep listening. She was too worried by her latest find.”

Gerty had been snuffle-snorting about the melon patches all morning.  She was looking for little people to play with, but all the bugs and mice seemed to be hiding today.  Dormancy was in the air.

She tried asking a bird to play with her, but it was so high in the branches of the karillow tree that she had to shout at it.  And the master scolded her for barking.  The bird flew away anyway.  They always did.

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Two of the Best Songwriting Teams Ever

I went to see Beautiful: The Carole King Musical tonight. It told the stories of the songwriting teams King/Goffin and Mann/Weil. I spent hours as a teen staring at those names on CD liner notes, wondering who they were, how they had written such beauty. It was deeply moving to see their stories played out on stage — these people who wrote so much of the music that I’ve leaned on.

I always liked “He’s Sure the Boy I Love” by Mann/Weil, but I love it so much more having seen it in Beautiful: The Carole King Musical.