When I was little, I looked at the adults around me and thought that they all knew what they were doing.  They all seemed self assured, free of doubt, confident, authoritative.  I assumed that I, in due course, would join the ranks of the people who had it all figured out.… Read full post »

I have a complicated and difficult relationship with my mother.  Who doesn't?  She lives in Canada, and I only see her every few years.  She was here visiting recently, and things seemed to be going well.  We were chatting nicely, and the conversation turned to why I quit my last… Read full post »

I have never believed in Santa Claus.  Not when I was two years old, or 12.  From earliest childhood, my parents told me that Santa Claus was pretend, not real.  

 Some people are shocked when I tell them that I have always known Santa Claus is mythical.  They pity me,… Read full post »

Yesterday I posted really bad things I secretly like.  Today I am going to list some movies I think are really good, but they are ones that many people haven't seen.  Of course I love all the great standard ones like The Godfather, but everyone already knows about them. These are… Read full post »

I assume that most people, like me, secretly enjoy things they would be embarrassed to publicly discuss.  These are some of mine:

 1.  Barry Manilow.  I know he is cheesy and overdramatic.  I realize that he puts three key changes in each song.  Yes, his hair is awesomel… Read full post »

 Today I read an essay on Open Salon about Thanksgiving, written by a woman who casually ridiculed her stepmother's rolls of disgusting fat and mocked her overly fatty Thanksgiving cooking (implying that the stepmother's obesity was due to her gluttony, not a health problem).  The scorn and… Read full post »

When my daughter was about two years old, I enrolled her in swimming class.  She was difficult then, at least for me.  I am not the natural mother type - none of it comes easily to me.  I find myself easily irritated by small children, short on patience, readily bored by… Read full post »

Today I was reading an advice column, and ran across a common statement that is increasingly irritating to me.  A man stated that he was a Christian with good morals.  

 I do not deny that many Christians are also morally upstanding people.  The part that annoys me is the common… Read full post »

Today's Salon article about Portia de Rossi changing her last name to De Generes started me thinking about why I changed mine when I married.  I was only 20 at the time, many years ago, so I didn't think about it deeply as it related to feminism.  The main reason, I… Read full post »

I was watching the Jonathan Ross talk show on BBC last week, and saw him interview the actress Christina Ricci.  She is a beautiful, delicate, glamorous and very feminine woman.  During the conversation, she was asked to do a cartwheel, and declined to do so because she had grown underarm h… Read full post »

I am interested in the current brouhaha about the word "retarded".  Sarah Palin rightly protested against Rahm Emmanuel's insulting use of the word as a synonym for people he regards as stupid.  It seems to me that the issue is the same one that arises with other words, like fat, crippled,… Read full post »

The sexiest man living?  In past years I would have gone for Johnny Depp or John Cusack, but this year I think it's Jon Stewart.  (Why are they all named some variation of John?)

Jon Stewart is good looking, but that's the least of it.  The world is full of… Read full post »

Today Sarah Palin complained because Newsweek put this picture of her on the cover of their magazine.  The picture was originally taken for an article about running in Runners World. 

Sarah Palin has never been shy about hammy flirting and displaying her figure in tight… Read full post »

I have been pregnant once.  I intended to become pregnant, but was still shocked and kind of frightened when I found out that I had succeeded.  And, in fact, it turned out to be a rather difficult pregnancy.  There were a lot of unpleasant side effects like nausea, vomiting, bloat… Read full post »

I utterly love the moment just before a movie begins.  The lights are down, the commercials are over, an expectant hush (ideally) falls across the audience, and the studio's roaring lion or statue of Columbia or whatever flashes onto the screen.  My favorite opener of all is the Fox one, wi… Read full post »