¶My parents lived in the same brutalist-Art Nouveau home for fifty-one years. (They never could agree on an aesthetic.) During that time, they accumulated the contents of a much larger house and crammed them into their much smaller one….The estate sale lasted three days. The following items did not move, so I am listing them here, on Facebook Marketplace.

¶This is funny because it could be true. Indeed, I’d be a buyer of the “seventeen years’ worth of National Geographics”, though I’d have to put them into chronological order. And the “Weber Grill assembly manual” with “marginalia [that] is extensive and occasionally personal” sounds like a museum-worthy piece from a recently-forgotten time.

¶Jerry Buss’ six adult children share the team’s financial benefits, but only the trustees have the legal power to manage the property.

¶Three of the siblings – Jeanie Buss, Janie Buss and Joey Buss – currently serve as co-trustees.

¶The Buss family drama shows that sharing ownership of a professional sports team can instead cause family disputes that play out publicly. One heir might prefer to remain actively involved in managing it, while the others may want to sell their stakes.

¶Conflicts when parents do what Jerry Buss did by naming some of his children as both trustees and beneficiaries, but leaving others with beneficiary status only, were the most common type of dispute.

¶Family drama seems to have been baked into the Buss trust that owns the majority of the Los Angeles Lakers. If I was one of the three children denied management authority and the team recently recognized a record valuation, as the Lakers have, I would certainly consider selling my interest. I might even fight to prove that I have the legal ability to do so.

¶She was, quintessentially, a uniter of people. In 2019, The New York Times ran a story with the headline “Is There Anything We Can All Agree On? Yes: Dolly Parton.”

¶Dolly Parton is an American treasure. RIP.

¶Her writing contained enormous warmth and tenderness; unlike some of her erstwhile male colleagues, she possessed an almost uncanny capacity for empathy. Anyone can tell a story, but it takes a pure heart to make it mean something.

¶This is a beautiful little tribute to Dolly Parton. I’m adding Dolly’s Little Bird to my regular rotation after reading it.