Bonni Brodnick Blog

Hey, did you catch our president at Davos? Our friend Pierre Bizalion is a cartoonist and just sent me this. I'd say you got him, Biz. Bravo! Bien fait.

Just when you thought there was a respite between New Year's and Valentine's Day, check your google calendar one more time. It's ... Squirrel Appreciation Day!! Click here for my HuffPost on what makes these creatures so flippin' cunning and adorable at the same time.

Re member when you could write a letter to a movie star, politician, or hero and get a response? My house is filled with framed letters to me from, amongst others, Jackie Kennedy, Elizabeth Taylor, James Stewart, futurist writer Isaac Asimov, Robert Goulet, the Lady-in-Waiting to Her Royal Highness, and Mr. Rogers himself. I wrote to him when my son was 2 years old, hoping he would write back. I thought a letter from him would be a nice remembrance for David, an avid fan of "Mister Rogers' Neighborhood," the pre-school television series that ran from 1968-2001. I love it when Mr. Rogers writes, " You are fortunate to have a mother who cares so much about what is important to you." With the two Mister Rogers films out in the past two years --  "A Beautiful Day in the Neighborhood"  (film, 2019) and "Won't You Be My Neighbor"  (documentary, 2018) -- we especially prize this letter. It's like having something from the cool guy i...

                                                                                                            Photo: Fran Collin Remember when you could say, "Geez, it's freezing out." Now, it's  HOT !!  It's mid-January and the temperature hit 66 this weekend. Global warming! No more winters with snowballs and hot cocoa from a thermos on a walk in the woods. In my book, POUND RIDGE PAST, Pat Marshall Bartram is featured in the chapter "Barrels of Oil and Blocks of Ice" (page 40). She talks about life in Pound Ridge in the 1930s ... "In wintertime, we went ice skating, The big boys would clean off a whole section on the back side of the lake, drive their cars out on the ice, and go skating. We used to have re...

    At this time of year, I love sharing this wonderful anecdote on page 45 from my book,  Pound Ridge Past (second edition).   from Joseph D. Quillian, Jr., Pound Ridge Community Church pastor from 1946-1950. It's an excerpt from a letter written in 1973 to The Reverend T. Cecil Swackhamer.      "I always remember with great warmth and a sense of lift-of-spirit the Christmas Eve services at Pound Ridge Church. The beautiful white church was always decorated with two Christmas trees on either side in the front, decorated with blue lights. Inside the church, there were numerous candles and beautiful crystal chandeliers. My wife Betty had (and has) a beautiful soprano voice, and Winston Sharples has a true and delicate tenor. The service consisted of the Christmas scriptures intermingled with solos and duets by Betty and Winston, with a brief sermon by me. The service always started at eleven o'clock and concluded at the stroke of midnight, at wh...

      Today, December 2, marks 29 years ago that my darling daughter Annie was born. In her fourth year of med school, she began her third rotation at St. Barnabas Medical Center.     As for  moi , this Monday after Thanksgiving meant one thing: back to writing.

Here is my turkey collection. And this is only PART of it. (It's vast, folks.) Check out my story on MEDIUM:       Thanksgiving Turkey: Let's Get Fresh!                              And finally, in this season of thanks, I am grateful to you, kind readers; to my family and friends; and to my Good Samaritans, Janie and Joe, for saving my life when I was having a stroke on I-95. Happy Thanksgiving!