Big Jewish Fun

My lively second cousins Brenda and Diane have been putting on these major family affairs for nearly thirty years, but, having founded my own one-person religion (see my and Ramon Sender's book on creative religion, Being Of The Sun, Harper & Row, 1973), and having lived in Hawaii since 1974, I have not gathered with my blood relatives for Passover since my teens. I had no idea it would be so wonderful. Diane's Spanish style cottage burgeoned with all things lovely--antiques, cut flowers, floral printed linens, platters of delicacies and desserts, and, most especially, a dozen beautiful and intelligent children, whose art and laughter graced the table. Diane and Brenda read aloud colorful introductions about each guest, including a family mazel tov for my book tour, and sang a Broadway tune with lyrics rewritten for the occasion, an act for which they are famous in our family. I met psychotherapist Marjorie Hansen Shaevitz, author of The Confident Worman, who referred me to her PR lady. I've got relatives in the record business, the movie business, TV, just what you would expect of a big Jewish family in LA. I received oodles of advice.

Brenda and Diane make dinner for 43.

Angelica and her dad sing a hit from the sixties.