It’s a sunny day in New York City. Not too hot. A bit of wind. And eyes on US Open Tennis. The semi-finals (Roger Federer, Novac Djokovic) and later, the Women’s Finals (Kim Clijsters, Vera Zvonareva). What happened to Roger in the second set? After a vigorous first (Federer, 7-5), the second seemed to slip […]
Archives for September 2010
Unfinished Business
Who doesn’t have unfinished business? There are monies owed and never collected. There are grudges, though we wish we could shed them. There are injustices we can name, document, dissect until we are out of breath and still we cannot defeat them. There are plans shelved for the machinery of a family unit. There are […]
Get Rich Quick!
Link love from Louisville. Product placement in Poughkeepsie. Rentals in Rio. And haven’t we all seen our local version of Mother Makes $88 Dollars an Hour on the Internet? There has to be a way to make bucks fast, right? Must all the ideas we hear and read be schemes and scams? Two years ago […]
The Forest for the Trees
We were pressed for time. Again. While my son finished dressing and filling his backpack, I put a plate of fried eggs and toast on the table. Orange juice next to it. I paced a little. I hate running late. He swallowed down breakfast and gulped the juice, grabbed his things, asked for the car […]
Permission to Fail? I Don’t Think So.
My son got home late last evening. I wasn’t happy. He wasn’t happy. After his 13-hour day, with plenty of homework ahead, he looked tired and discouraged. His reason for being so late? An informational session on a scholarship program, and its first set of qualifying exercises. He perked up when he talked about it, […]
Random Acts of Parenting
I thought it would be a quiet weekend. It was. A little too quiet. My son seemed off. I couldn’t put my finger on it. Though he had friends over one evening, there were two nights in a row when he was up at strange hours, walking around. Not his usual behavior. But with adolescents, […]
Why You Should Be Watching Mad Men (Especially if You’re a Woman)
The heart of the matter All those sayings… about a woman’s place, about a woman’s power, about the capacities – and limitations – that are inherently female. Must I really enumerate them? Can’t you rattle them off in your head? They’ve been planted there since you were a child, you know – whether you’re 30 […]
Who do you trust?
When I wrote about the film, Closer, I was intrigued by the fine line between honesty and dishonesty, genuine connection and its simulation, and the ways in which we deceive ourselves when we love. There is nothing more fascinating – to me – than adults dealing with each other. Men and women, interacting. The issue […]
Men and Women. Coming Closer.
Let’s hear it for cable! And for delicious films that we may never have seen when they were released to the theaters. Like Closer – an unexpected treat I enjoyed last night, so effectively constructed that I watched it twice in succession. Closer The characters are stunning. The dialog is smart and raw. Each of […]
Is “reputation” old hat?
Are you about getting it done, or how well you get it done? Do you dash off memos, emails, or work product of other sorts, with only a quick look – if that? Do you insist on being proud of whatever you produce and put your name to? Quality, quality, quality The other day I […]