Slightly in advance of Mother's Day, a fraction of the excellent things my mom has said or done:

• She (and my dad) read to my brother and me nearly every night from as early as I can remember.

• She taught my brother and me how to roller-skate.

• When she went back to school when I was ten and George was eight, she logged two years of a 4.0 at North Seattle Community College then transferred to the University of Washington for her next two years and graduated summa cum laude. And she helped us with our homework each night before she even got a chance to start hers.

• Her homemade lasagna remains unparalleled. I'm certain it could end wars if everyone just got a slice.
  

• Because she was raised in a traditional Greek household (code for "sexist as hell"), she taught me I could be anything as long as I devoted myself to the task at hand. And, of course, never let my slip show.
  

• Once when my brother was in high school and didn't want to help in the kitchen, she told him, "Just because you have a penis doesn't mean you can't unload a dishwasher."
  

• We laugh about it now, but when I was a junior in high school, she said she knew times were changing and she'd understand if I had premarital sex, "if, for instance, you're twenty-seven and engaged."

• When George and I were in junior high, she decided we were old enough to see R-rated movies, but she wanted our first to be a good one so she took us to see The Shining.

• She taught us "the N-word" was the worst word we could utter and, more importantly, taught us why.

• When she was a deputy prosecuting attorney, I frequently visited her office and encountered several defense attorneys who said Mom had repeatedly and thoroughly trumped them in court, but they liked her anyway because she played fair and was a class act.

• She instilled in me a lifelong appreciation of Hemingway and Fitzgerald.
  

• Many years ago, she put a Maniati (Spartan) curse on someone who broke my heart. Subsequently, his career went off the rails.
  

• She taught me this same Maniati curse that has been passed down for centuries. I, too, have used it sparingly, but to great effect.

• My father is equally wonderful, but Mom will always be the glue.