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WEDNESDAY

Much like Rosanna Arquette, whose 2002 documentary Searching for Debra Winger focused on the brief working lives of actresses, I too miss Debra’s heyday. Her characters were no-frills women, survivors, people who knew their own minds. A Debra Winger character would never send a prefab greeting card. But Winger’s brother-in-law, Jim Howard—also a screenwriter (Big Bad Love)—has been writing verses for Hallmark for more than 24 years. The examples of his work that I saw didn’t rhyme, thank goodness. But: “I saw a cloud that was shaped like hope and I hoped it would float your way…soon”? Well, I guess not everyone can be as pithy as Winger, who allegedly said: “Inside every great marriage is a divorce waiting to happen.” Now there’s a Keepsake for you. Learn more about the fine art of helping folks communicate via fuzzy watercolors and faux-cursive fonts when Howard and fellow card-scribe Tina Neidlein present the “Hallmark Inspiration Tour” at 11 a.m. at Common Grounds Coffee and Tea, 3211 Wilson Blvd., Arlington, free, (703) 312-0427, and at 6:30 p.m. at Teaism, 400 8th St. NW, free, (202) 638-6010. (Pamela Murray Winters)