“There’s been a shocking shortage of togas in my life,” she said on the phone. I considered her remark for a moment, running through the past years of coffee dates, dinner dates, dessert dates, assorted cocktails. Cocktail napkins for that matter. Quite right. Not a toga among them. Hell, not even a Third Date toga. […]
Is a Pact With the Devil the Price of Success?
Does success always involve a pact with the devil? Go on. Think back. All those little deals and compromises justified in order to move up the corporate ladder, to get the bigger house, the faster car, the hot guy, the beautiful woman… What wouldn’t we do to get what we want? What if it’s to […]
Mr. Potato Head. Richard Gere. Faux Fur.
Mr. Potato Head was flashing through my dreams the other night. No… not those kind of dreams, and not that kind of flashing either. Even if this little hunka-hunka-studly-spud has a certain staying power, expressive eyebrows, and movable parts, he’s just not my type. I like a man with, um, backbone. Oh. And a pulse. […]
I wish I may, I wish I might, understand my teen tonight!
What if we let our kids hand us a list of their parenting wishes? A sort of top ten tips for parenting, from their perspective? If only there were guides for the tween and teen years that were as straightforward as getting through those first sleepless six months, or the terrible twos. (Though personally, I […]
Mad Men: Gorgeous, Gore, and Gals About Guys
It may be late in the week, but how could I resist a few observations on last Sunday’s viewing of Mad Men? What struck me? A gorgeous guy named Guy appears from the UK office, Joan celebrates her last day at the agency with a difficult secret, Don believes he might have a London assignment […]
Chivalry, Part Deux (Teen Style)
Teenage boy + long school day + driving lesson = London Broil, potatoes, au jus with mushrooms, and one giant glass of milk. My 16-year old son waits politely until I sit down. I glance at my watch as he inhales. I sip my wine and cut into my meat. Four minutes. Not a record, […]
Chivalry: Here today, gone tomorrow, ALWAYS in fashion
Is chivalry dead? Recently resurrected? Thriving in certain demographics and knocked off again in others? Will it rise once more in the fine muddle of commotion and controversy over opening doors, pulling out chairs, and picking up the tab on dates? Chivalry is about courtesy and generosity. I say YES to chivalry on my planet […]
Time online: symptom, solution, or nothing new?
I’ve been thinking about recent discussion and comments concerning our kids’ online time. They text, chat, spend hours on Facebook. Frankly – who knows what they’re doing some of the time. And I’ve been considering the remarks that many of us have made about our own (possibly excessive) use of our communication tools and social […]
No power. No wi-fi. NO FUN!
Terrible storms throughout the night. The dog, circling and scratching. Then, the sound of an explosion, 4 or 5 a.m. Either a tree went through the roof (it happens in our neighborhood), or – more likely – the transformer two houses away blew. My alarm is on AAs; it went off at the usual time. […]
Mad Men’s Women: Drugged Debs, Bottles over Breasts
Disturbing, on oh-so-many levels. This week’s episode of Mad Men was an unsettling and somber look at the world of baby-birthing in the 60s, and long before. Setting aside all your opinions of the main character’s ambivalence about her place in society, her marriage, her family and her unborn child, it’s hard not to be […]