Judith Ritschard

We’ve all been in a situation where someone made a racist joke or comment.  Remember how some people cheered on the joker by laughing? While others stood there awkwardly staring at their drink, and when someone did speak up they got told, “Oh, you have no sense of humor. It’s just a joke.”  Let’s face […]

“How are you guys holding up?” I asked a friend.  She groaned and told me how her marriage was strained after months of unemployment, not to mention the stress of having her older children suddenly thrust back into the nest. I sensed she wanted to go keep venting, but she quickly switched gears, as if […]

I don’t care what culture you identify with the most, or how amazing or superior you may think your culture is to others. Every single group has its eyebrow-raising, kooky, cultural neuroses, and we Mexicans are no different. As most of you know by now, I mostly consider myself American Mountain Girl (it’s a real […]

Even though we’d been going to the same restaurant for years, I hadn’t noticed a little message at the bottom that read:  “Today’s menu was made possible by immigrants.” I left a tip for our waiter, signed and exited the restaurant, surprised at my own level of elation to see a small shoutout to the […]

Dear Carbondale: Cheers, sweetheart, on our ten year anniversary! Last month marks a decade since I spent my first night on the floor in our new townhome. As you may recall, at the time the economy was puttering along and I was months away from becoming a first-time mom. And, even though my husband and […]

This new book I have assures me that, “fermenting vegetables is a simple, inexpensive process that was used reliably for a few thousand years.”  Okay, so if it’s so simple why am I so scared to venture into the world of lacto-fermentation? I assure you I know my way around a kitchen. I slice, dice, […]

“Isn’t your life already too busy to host an exchange student?” is a question we heard over and over. I don’t know? Aren’t all our lives eternally busy in some form or another?  But our dedication to raise two boys to be globally aware citizens outweighed any notion that our schedule was already too packed. […]