Shelley--thank you for the note. (I love writing on the Medium platform, but seeing responses and writing back to them is a little complicated.) I hear what you are saying. I know that as a new neighbor on a block, I would want to be welcomed with a casserole or cupcakes...seriously...rather than criticism and input on my property, which can sting and cause bad feelings right off. (I believe The Cut article referred to the new family receiving cupcakes.) I guess my point is.....Susan (to whom I haven't spoken in a while) may have been prickly but what bothered me is that she became a Karen emblem......what if this had nothing at all to do with race? As you can see in my story, neighbors in Montlcair often make requests of one another....