About

I am a physician who knows how to do an autopsy.  Only girl among 5 brothers.  I hit a big forehand, but backhand is oddly feeble, athletic but lack the discipline to be an athlete.  Birder.  Mother.  Wife.  Reader.  Bell-ringer.  Writer.  Word Enthusiast.

Vladimir Nabokov, Mark Twain and Charles Darwin are my literary heroes.  All three are preeminent “noticers.”  I admire Nabokov for his ability to engage all five senses in his descriptions,  Twain for his dissection of the human condition, and Darwin for his keen observation of the natural world.  I try to bring the same curiosity, humor, wonder and awe to my “Fanagram” essays, which include memoir pieces, commentary on contemporary culture, and curiosity driven research pieces on anything that catches my eye.  I have been inspired to write about the remarkable life cycle of the tick in response to their abundance in the prairie next to our home, and have written about the patterns of swearing across cultures as researched in cab rides.

My mother Fan Brown bequesthed me a love of word games and high-quality doggerel.  Her clever wit and worn pink rhyming dictionary are constant inspirations.  In her honor I have concluded many of the Fanagrams with a doggerelish word game poem.

Thanks you for visiting my Fanagrams blog site.  Please note that you can subscibe to this blog site by entering your email address in the subscription box in the upper right hand corner.

I can also be found on facebook at www.facebook.com/fanagrams

All essays are also available on podcasts on this website, but you can also subscribe to the podcast through iTunes using the following link:

https://itunes.apple.com/us/podcast/fanagrams/id525592576?mt=2

I’m told that everyone likes visuals.  So here I am, as chronicled in a series of Passport Photos: