"scary"

My next door neighbor's son Jason was crestfallen when he got the memo  from school about this year's Halloween celebration: no vampires, no zombies, no monsters, no devils; no swords or stakes or axes or ropes or hockey masks with breathing holes. Forget the fake blood or… Read full post »

How could you not like this incredibly succinct lede from the Christian Science Monitor: "Public likes public option for healthcare. Joe Lieberman doesn’t."

The Independent from Connecticut isn't particularly interested in polls showing a majority - slim but ever-present - of… Read full post »

_^Around the time I turned forty, I finally got the family thing together. Newly hitched to a handsome, strapping, and utterly devoted man from upstate New York, I also married into his large extended Italian family. My small family was intact as well. Over the years, although we d… Read full post »

our Afghanistan policy can't possibly be simple 

According to the weekly news index from Pew Research, Afghanistan has become the focus of both old and new media – at least until some cute video of a pet or a baby starts circulating or some reality show contestant starts complaining, at wh… Read full post »

 (the information contained herewithin may have been altered to protect the innocent, protect the guilty, or enhance the plot line)

       My part-time friend and sometime literary agent Adele called me in the middle of a full-blown meltdown. "No one wan… Read full post »

A friend of mine alerted me yesterday to the hoopla surrounding a tweet from entrepreneur and career counselor to young women, Penelope Trunk, who posted the following last week: "I'm in a board meeting. Having a miscarriage. Thank goodness, because there's a fucked-up 3-week ho… Read full post »

Several recent stories have prompted some deep thought about a subject that bothers me: Are men in many societies so out of control that special protections, not to mention numerous restrictions, are required for women all over the world? Is it that difficult for men to get a handle on… Read full post »

Today’s headline in USA Today reads as follows: “What Happened to Civility?” At the risk of sounding rude: hahaha, oh that’s a good one, RAFLOL.

Our current rash of incivility is nothing new but it does seem at times to be particularly threatening. Once thought to be th… Read full post »

(Yeah, yeah, you were expecting naked pictures. Here):  

After nearly eight weeks away from Open Salon (which I immediately amended to "I won't post but I will lurk and occasionally comment"), I'm back. I managed to get some things done this summer (although I obviously didn't lear… Read full post »

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