<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?><rss xmlns:dc="http://purl.org/dc/elements/1.1/" xmlns:content="http://purl.org/rss/1.0/modules/content/" xmlns:atom="http://www.w3.org/2005/Atom" version="2.0"><channel><title><![CDATA[Erika Raskin, Writer]]></title><description><![CDATA[Erika Raskin, Writer]]></description><link>https://www.erikaraskin.com/blog</link><generator>RSS for Node</generator><lastBuildDate>Mon, 15 Jun 2026 17:30:34 GMT</lastBuildDate><atom:link href="https://www.erikaraskin.com/blog-feed.xml" rel="self" type="application/rss+xml"/><item><title><![CDATA[My Vulture Friend, Morticia]]></title><description><![CDATA[This is our neighborhood vulture rocking a meta birdhouse fascinator, looking very glamorous, as usual. Morticia is a trip. She arrived a year ago, rising from the ground like a sail being hoisted towards the sky, leaving my spouse and I wearing matching expressions of bafflement. What is that? Eventually she got up from the unkempt pasture, and pulled into a standing position, one wing at the ready, the other hanging loosely to the side. When I went to see if she was okay she hopped-flew...]]></description><link>https://www.erikaraskin.com/post/my-vulture-friend-morticia</link><guid isPermaLink="false">6a300858c0b3ed92b0fa97c4</guid><pubDate>Mon, 15 Jun 2026 14:20:39 GMT</pubDate><enclosure url="https://static.wixstatic.com/media/12c73a_fceb081d4ca546f881d5ab363155e8a1~mv2.jpeg/v1/fit/w_1000,h_1000,al_c,q_80/file.png" length="0" type="image/png"/><dc:creator>erikaraskin</dc:creator></item><item><title><![CDATA[Snapshots Of My Dad]]></title><description><![CDATA[I was listening to Falling by Alicia Keys this morning and remembered the time I played it for my dad. When we got to the end, he said, “Again.” I hit replay. I miss him. So I’m rerunning something I wrote after he died. With some addendums. Despite his general decline the idea that he might actually not be here didn’t really occur to any of us. And, in truth, probably not to him either. He used to talk about adhering to his Live Forever Diet (which mostly consisted of all things chocolate)...]]></description><link>https://www.erikaraskin.com/post/snapshots-of-my-dad-1</link><guid isPermaLink="false">6a21e3311f44c606b3753bc2</guid><pubDate>Thu, 04 Jun 2026 20:57:15 GMT</pubDate><enclosure url="https://static.wixstatic.com/media/12c73a_79b9436e074046e0a212358c3f3b6814~mv2.jpeg/v1/fit/w_480,h_640,al_c,q_80/file.png" length="0" type="image/png"/><dc:creator>erikaraskin</dc:creator></item><item><title><![CDATA[Could You Move Your Head A Little To The Left?]]></title><description><![CDATA[I’ve been examining the background of people being interviewed on TV ever since Covid home studios sprang up around the country. Private lives sneaking through the frame is juicy and I am here for all of it. (I’m a writer, I can’t help it.) Scenery in impersonal TV studios is not revelatory—though if someone is being forced to sit at a glass table top in a group chat situation other information is available. Like footwear. Or nerves. A direct line onto a juddering leg is sadistic. (I’m...]]></description><link>https://www.erikaraskin.com/post/could-you-move-your-head-a-little-to-the-left</link><guid isPermaLink="false">69f7af01384eb6d61abc20a6</guid><pubDate>Sun, 03 May 2026 20:32:55 GMT</pubDate><enclosure url="https://static.wixstatic.com/media/12c73a_73f944a1dfbc49b2bee48d28e170a42b~mv2.jpeg/v1/fit/w_640,h_480,al_c,q_80/file.png" length="0" type="image/png"/><dc:creator>erikaraskin</dc:creator></item><item><title><![CDATA[Sweet Smelling Rose]]></title><description><![CDATA[I love words in general and names in particular. I collect them. And not to toot my own or anything, but I’m a pro at giving them out to other people, too. I’ve helped many with this momentous task. Not just relatives, acquaintances, too. Excluding my own off-spring, Taryn, Emma Lise, Hannah Grace, Mariah Sofia, Natalie, Hadley Ann, Tess, Charlotte, Michael and Daisy have me to thank. (Or their parents to blame. They had final say.) There were also a few more that I should have been consulted...]]></description><link>https://www.erikaraskin.com/post/sweet-smelling-rose</link><guid isPermaLink="false">69cbf1a8c6f6bb14a90d4996</guid><pubDate>Tue, 31 Mar 2026 16:24:03 GMT</pubDate><enclosure url="https://static.wixstatic.com/media/12c73a_12178549b0ad41feb16e3d140e6776de~mv2.jpeg/v1/fit/w_1000,h_1000,al_c,q_80/file.png" length="0" type="image/png"/><dc:creator>erikaraskin</dc:creator></item><item><title><![CDATA[I'll Take Your Recognition Now]]></title><description><![CDATA[Photo by Ofspace LLC  on Unsplash Trump’s recent acquisition of the Nobel Prize reminds me of the time I came upon this mysterious room in the basement of an esteemed American hospital. The door had been left ajar and I peered in. (Duh.) It was basically a mausoleum for old plaques pried off walls and entryways. The markers that had previously announced honor — and probably hung with some fanfare— were now stacked in piles of ephemera. Those awards, which had included naming rights for...]]></description><link>https://www.erikaraskin.com/post/i-ll-take-your-recognition-now</link><guid isPermaLink="false">696a74f544e01db33a01e89c</guid><pubDate>Fri, 16 Jan 2026 17:38:36 GMT</pubDate><enclosure url="https://static.wixstatic.com/media/12c73a_0a1eeb360fb34e4abbe43ea0e5d46fb6~mv2.jpg/v1/fit/w_1000,h_1000,al_c,q_80/file.png" length="0" type="image/png"/><dc:creator>erikaraskin</dc:creator></item><item><title><![CDATA[Christmas Comes Early]]></title><description><![CDATA[I was at a newish friend’s house for the first time and we were chatting when out of nowhere she asked if I was any good at art placement. ‘Not bad,’ I answered. (So long as you don’t look at the misguided holes in the dry wall behind the frames.) She explained that she’d just painted the den and wanted to mix things up. ‘How about furniture placement?’ she asked. I tried not to jump up. Rearranging rooms is my crack. Completely untrained in interior design, nothing makes me happier than...]]></description><link>https://www.erikaraskin.com/post/christmas-comes-early</link><guid isPermaLink="false">69494eecea017660570a96b1</guid><pubDate>Mon, 22 Dec 2025 14:04:20 GMT</pubDate><enclosure url="https://static.wixstatic.com/media/12c73a_5167fdf0463a4a5a8c9b8bcd7df65c0b~mv2.jpeg/v1/fit/w_480,h_640,al_c,q_80/file.png" length="0" type="image/png"/><dc:creator>erikaraskin</dc:creator></item><item><title><![CDATA[Nature Girl]]></title><description><![CDATA[This is Morticia. Over the summer she (he?) rehabbed a hurt wing between our house and the one next door, breaking bread with feral cats and deer while also being fed by her brethren and people alike. While I didn’t look for roadkill , I did sprinkle the yard with Purina. Which has got to be a step up in the culinary department. Our neighbors whose porch she claimed to actually convalesce on weren’t huge fans (think smaller birds and windshields) but they did tolerate her need for shelter....]]></description><link>https://www.erikaraskin.com/post/nature-girl</link><guid isPermaLink="false">694033177d3431799f8ce28e</guid><pubDate>Mon, 15 Dec 2025 16:51:19 GMT</pubDate><enclosure url="https://static.wixstatic.com/media/12c73a_aff5d2ef2cf44b98a54d5458cc7522e8~mv2.jpg/v1/fit/w_938,h_1000,al_c,q_80/file.png" length="0" type="image/png"/><dc:creator>erikaraskin</dc:creator></item><item><title><![CDATA[Night Night Sleepy Heathen]]></title><description><![CDATA[So, pretty much every old saw about old age is 100% true. There’s crepitus (the medical onomatopoeia-ous description of creaky joints), and the inevitable geriatric bitch sessions where individualized assaults on the body are compared in groups of two or more, (except, of course for the unmentionable issues which are unmentionable for a reason); and the whole-scale disappearance of words from mental dictionaries (though, thankfully adjacent synonyms seem to hang on longer.) There also seems...]]></description><link>https://www.erikaraskin.com/post/night-night-sleepy-heathen</link><guid isPermaLink="false">69402c0cb33afcf13e962b03</guid><pubDate>Mon, 15 Dec 2025 15:50:47 GMT</pubDate><enclosure url="https://static.wixstatic.com/media/12c73a_07df35295be74feab9cecfb733d588f2~mv2.jpg/v1/fit/w_630,h_1000,al_c,q_80/file.png" length="0" type="image/png"/><dc:creator>erikaraskin</dc:creator></item><item><title><![CDATA[A Wrong Turn on the Career Path -- From Which I'm Still Recovering A Quarter Century Later]]></title><description><![CDATA[unsplash Erika Raskin Oct 02, 2025 This essay, called Tales of a Sub, originally aired on WVTF public radio . Years ago, before I decided to bite the bullet and embrace the soul crushing rejection that often goes with Being a Writer, I decided to try my hand at substitute teaching. I realized my mistake almost immediately. Part of the problem was Miss T., a school secretary who’d call before the sun rose to line-up her fill-ins. She scared the hell out of me. And not just because she carried...]]></description><link>https://www.erikaraskin.com/post/a-wrong-turn-on-the-career-path-from-which-i-m-still-recovering-a-quarter-century-later</link><guid isPermaLink="false">694023977d3431799f8cb4cb</guid><pubDate>Mon, 15 Dec 2025 15:37:01 GMT</pubDate><enclosure url="https://static.wixstatic.com/media/fabd499db1e54f5292311a0ba1913ea7.jpg/v1/fit/w_1000,h_1000,al_c,q_80/file.png" length="0" type="image/png"/><dc:creator>erikaraskin</dc:creator></item><item><title><![CDATA[My Letter To The Editor About ICE --How A Uniform Can Change The Man]]></title><description><![CDATA[Erika Raskin Sep 26, 2025 this (terrifying) actual poster photo was not included in the letter. My letter to the editor -- Richmond Times Dispatch What I’d like to say to those consider joining U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement: The footage of masked authorities descending on other people reminds me of the Stanford prison experiment (which has freaked me out for half a century). Undertaken only a generation or so past the horrors of German war crimes, academic researchers wanted to...]]></description><link>https://www.erikaraskin.com/post/my-letter-to-the-editor-about-ice-how-a-uniform-can-change-the-man</link><guid isPermaLink="false">69401eab7d3431799f8ca556</guid><pubDate>Mon, 15 Dec 2025 14:46:32 GMT</pubDate><enclosure url="https://static.wixstatic.com/media/12c73a_cf105db459a443b38a3de7c7ffb76f27~mv2.jpg/v1/fit/w_480,h_640,al_c,q_80/file.png" length="0" type="image/png"/><dc:creator>erikaraskin</dc:creator></item><item><title><![CDATA[My Defeat Garden]]></title><description><![CDATA[An Update on a 5-year-Old Piece 5/24/20 The Daily Progress: In my defense, I’d just envisioned raised beds. On the deck. Or maybe a bunch of those individual pots like the packaged plants of oregano and basil next to the bok choy in the grocery store. But, you know, with corn stalks and watermelons in them. The idea of growing our own was in response to the lockdown and shortages and the looming threat of scurvy. While most of my scarcity concerns actually revolve around toilet paper, I...]]></description><link>https://www.erikaraskin.com/post/my-defeat-garden-1</link><guid isPermaLink="false">6940193b7d3431799f8c954e</guid><pubDate>Mon, 15 Dec 2025 14:33:46 GMT</pubDate><enclosure url="https://static.wixstatic.com/media/12c73a_1ccad05dca8244f0b556bb3def02a087~mv2.jpeg/v1/fit/w_480,h_640,al_c,q_80/file.png" length="0" type="image/png"/><dc:creator>erikaraskin</dc:creator></item><item><title><![CDATA[Covid Collage]]></title><description><![CDATA[I started it when the covid separation from family and friends became insufferable — when physical forays into each others’ lives had morphed into calls, texts and the occasional unruly clan zoom. Which was interesting in terms of the Raskin Bad Habit of talking over 25 relatives. (Hello mute button.) Anyhoo, I don’t remember the exact moment when I thought to do it but it became A Pandemic Project. I ordered magnets along with many bulletin boards to affix them to, and got to work on the...]]></description><link>https://www.erikaraskin.com/post/covid-collage</link><guid isPermaLink="false">693450de21dbaf583f893f1f</guid><pubDate>Sat, 06 Dec 2025 15:53:29 GMT</pubDate><enclosure url="https://static.wixstatic.com/media/12c73a_665fa56ca6414bc087451e61d3c2c908~mv2.jpg/v1/fit/w_640,h_480,al_c,q_80/file.png" length="0" type="image/png"/><dc:creator>erikaraskin</dc:creator></item><item><title><![CDATA[Declare Yourself.]]></title><description><![CDATA[I went to pick up the poster commemorating Democracy Summer, the program started by Jamie Raskin (my brother) from the framer’s. Made by...]]></description><link>https://www.erikaraskin.com/post/declare-yourself</link><guid isPermaLink="false">68add96d6e26accbc6ccfd24</guid><pubDate>Tue, 26 Aug 2025 15:57:42 GMT</pubDate><enclosure url="https://static.wixstatic.com/media/12c73a_b3bd19bc942147638a6e398c42be8601~mv2.jpg/v1/fit/w_480,h_640,al_c,q_80/file.png" length="0" type="image/png"/><dc:creator>erikaraskin</dc:creator></item><item><title><![CDATA[Not Saying It Doesn't Mean It's Not True]]></title><description><![CDATA[I’m a writer. Language is serious business. (So are grammatical symbols and I’m confused as to how the quotation marks landed around...]]></description><link>https://www.erikaraskin.com/post/not-saying-it-doesn-t-mean-it-s-not-true</link><guid isPermaLink="false">68a47afa34b07f0731c74363</guid><pubDate>Tue, 19 Aug 2025 13:34:20 GMT</pubDate><enclosure url="https://static.wixstatic.com/media/12c73a_cc271e7208f24d91b43e98500fc89334~mv2.jpg/v1/fit/w_480,h_640,al_c,q_80/file.png" length="0" type="image/png"/><dc:creator>erikaraskin</dc:creator></item><item><title><![CDATA[Just Say No]]></title><description><![CDATA[https://collections.library.yale.edu/catalog/10687092 I've arrived at the stage of life when I can never recall where my freaking...]]></description><link>https://www.erikaraskin.com/post/just-say-no</link><guid isPermaLink="false">6852bd8ca3f6bfa22616a855</guid><pubDate>Sat, 21 Jun 2025 13:30:52 GMT</pubDate><enclosure url="https://static.wixstatic.com/media/12c73a_fcd7fdcdc8ef48dabb52201a48873634~mv2.png/v1/fit/w_1000,h_1000,al_c,q_80/file.png" length="0" type="image/png"/><dc:creator>erikaraskin</dc:creator></item><item><title><![CDATA[Champion Of The World]]></title><description><![CDATA[This essay originally aired on WVTF Public Radio. ​ Photo by Sung Jin Cho  on Unsplash I’ve never thought I was really competitive. In...]]></description><link>https://www.erikaraskin.com/post/pass-the-trophy</link><guid isPermaLink="false">68540ac3835afcccc573c884</guid><pubDate>Thu, 19 Jun 2025 13:09:47 GMT</pubDate><enclosure url="https://static.wixstatic.com/media/12c73a_552b6391323b43deb156d1867bc39362~mv2.jpg/v1/fit/w_1000,h_1000,al_c,q_80/file.png" length="0" type="image/png"/><dc:creator>erikaraskin</dc:creator></item><item><title><![CDATA[Here, Put On This Uniform]]></title><description><![CDATA[purl.stanford.edu/gy331hf4974 I keep thinking about that Stanford Prison Experiment. I learned about it in college back in the '70s. The...]]></description><link>https://www.erikaraskin.com/post/here-put-on-this-uniform</link><guid isPermaLink="false">68496ffcfd3f3d134190125f</guid><pubDate>Wed, 11 Jun 2025 12:03:43 GMT</pubDate><enclosure url="https://static.wixstatic.com/media/12c73a_a2c7ec9a156e4be2a89d30f51fb0e693~mv2.jpg/v1/fit/w_1000,h_1000,al_c,q_80/file.png" length="0" type="image/png"/><dc:creator>erikaraskin</dc:creator></item><item><title><![CDATA[Message Received]]></title><description><![CDATA[Us. (Me wearing a dermatologist-prescribed stupid hat.) I hit the retirement age of 65 at the same time my spouse, who actually had.....]]></description><link>https://www.erikaraskin.com/post/message-received</link><guid isPermaLink="false">6831c8da4843abfa85e0ca81</guid><pubDate>Thu, 29 May 2025 20:50:13 GMT</pubDate><enclosure url="https://static.wixstatic.com/media/12c73a_e687dd6b0b004414a18b79c620444027~mv2.jpg/v1/fit/w_1000,h_1000,al_c,q_80/file.png" length="0" type="image/png"/><dc:creator>erikaraskin</dc:creator></item><item><title><![CDATA[A Sad, Weird Interlude]]></title><description><![CDATA[Photo by Xx xx  on Unsplash We were on the way home from an Easter luncheon, taking the mostly empty, very windy country roads (Think:...]]></description><link>https://www.erikaraskin.com/post/a-sad-weird-interlude</link><guid isPermaLink="false">680689e03933f6b592b5e9e9</guid><pubDate>Mon, 21 Apr 2025 20:46:40 GMT</pubDate><enclosure url="https://static.wixstatic.com/media/12c73a_8ce547e292b247b4a878cc4ce8601c1b~mv2.jpg/v1/fit/w_1000,h_1000,al_c,q_80/file.png" length="0" type="image/png"/><dc:creator>erikaraskin</dc:creator></item><item><title><![CDATA[COMPLICITY - A TALE OF NOW]]></title><description><![CDATA[Lissy is already dressed, her dolls arranged next to the bed in the space that is sometimes a boat, sometimes a park, and often a...]]></description><link>https://www.erikaraskin.com/post/complicity-a-tale-of-now</link><guid isPermaLink="false">67faca194d9495e7a68f92d6</guid><pubDate>Sat, 12 Apr 2025 20:24:20 GMT</pubDate><enclosure url="https://static.wixstatic.com/media/12c73a_e7c98586839b45998c91a52966828564~mv2.jpg/v1/fit/w_1000,h_1000,al_c,q_80/file.png" length="0" type="image/png"/><dc:creator>erikaraskin</dc:creator></item></channel></rss>