I’m sure I am not the only person who has turned to underwear for solace while grieving. The day after my mother died, on a frigid January day in Seattle, I desperately dug through Mom’s closet to find her wool socks and long-johns. I had hurriedly arrived from Honolulu and shivered uncontrollably. My other siblings […]

I give regular tours at a contemporary art museum. One day when I enter the museum, I hear the dreadful sound of a car alarm coming from a back gallery. It sound like the classic one that came out twenty years ago or so.  You would recognize it instantly: a screeching sound track alternates every