It took me half the day to get over my surprise at learning our president won the Nobel Peace Prize, only nine promising months (with few concrete achievements) into his presidency. I did the same dance of cynicism as many people did, and I loved all the satire on here, especially… Read full post »

No, it's not a real book club. But I tried to make lemonade out of lemons in my intellectual life: A friend got me an advance copy of Taylor Branch's intriguing "The Clinton Tapes," but my life won't allow me to sit home, plow through 700 pages, take two days to… Read full post »

I really expected the sophomore year goodbye to Nora to be easier, but I'm not sure it is. Partly that's because freshman year, Nora left for college from the Democratic Convention in Denver, getting on a red-eye after Bill Clinton's wonderful speech endorsing Obama. I was sad but distracted. I went… Read full post »

My last post was about two things that make me very happy, Baseball and Puppies. And I've been bragging on Sadie a lot.

But as much as I love Sadie, my day was made by Rush Limbaugh calling me "The Magic Honky" because I defended President Obama and called him… Read full post »

I've had a tough week -- a beloved cousin died --  and I've been in serious need of solace.

Watch this video and try not to cry:

 Then look at this cuteness and try not to be devoured by jealousing!

Read full post »

I'm having a major cute-off with Mignon. We just got a labradoodle puppy named Sadie. How cute is this?

So I'm taking a semi-spontaneous vacation. What happened is, I looked at the Salon summer calendar and realized pretty much every week was taken by someone in editorial who, well, I just can't be gone when they are. Yikes!

It's fine, it's fun, it's spontaneous -- but I have NO books… Read full post »

I know I'm not the only one having this problem. I see a lot of you Tweeting one another and writing on one another's Facebook walls and of course doing what you all do here (I'm loving the Father's Day pieces, btw). But...how do we really stay in touch?

Now I… Read full post »

I received an update from Dakini/Josie's niece, Judy Kelley, that I wanted to share here. You'll see there are no firm plans yet for a memorial, but Judy will let us know when such plans develop.

Hi Joan,
This is the info I posted on cartouche's memorial post:
Thank you, to… Read full post »

In our world of cyber-relationships, it's hard to know how to handle news like this, but many of you noticed that a poster named "Niece of Dakini" posted tonight on Dakini Dancer's blog to tell us her aunt, Josie Ortez, died suddenly on Wednesday. I sent a private message to "Niece… Read full post »

Some of you at the SF/OS party met my sister Susan. I love marytkelly's adorable sister Just Cathy, but as sisters go, Susan is very high up there, and of course for me, she's at the top. For a lot of reasons, including coming to the OS party (which she insisted… Read full post »

I've been ducking comments for a while about how it's time for me to update my hat -- a spring chapeau, perhaps? I already missed the window for an Easter Bonnet -- well, except for Greek Orthodox Easter. Stellaa?

The fact is, if Lonnie hadn't matched my head with Aretha's… Read full post »

I was so busy today I couldn't really deal with the breaking news on Somali Pilates. The thing is, I never fully enjoyed Pilates, it always felt like a form of exercise for super-privileged women (I can't regularly afford those fees!) so my heart kind of goes out to the Somali… Read full post »

This post might just be therapy. Excuse me if it is.

I had a great late-afternoon at the ballpark, my San Francisco Giants v. the Milwaukee Brewers in a strange 4 pm start. I left work early and took my daughter Nora, who's home for Easter. She left in the 7th… Read full post »

I wrote a version of this comment to Paul Levinson, and then I realized it was the beginning of my own blog post on "In Treatment," which I love, but which chilled me tonight.

I'm sure everyone followed the comments on Kerry's blog about what an awful therapist Paul is,… Read full post »

I'm tanned, rested and ready to be back. I haven't had a vacation this fun in years, although maybe I always say that.

For 14 years straight my daughter and I have traveled to Scottsdale, Arizona to watch San Francisco Giants Spring Training with a changing cast of characters. We have… Read full post »

If the New York Times is looking to cut costs, maybe it's time to cut back on its lifestyle coverage. It's increasingly unreadable, and recently two style stories struck me as hoaxes.  One was definitely a hoax, about the non-existent "Dating a Banker Anonymous" group, supposedly established for… Read full post »

Ah, Lonnie. He stepped in and met a need. I needed to wear Aretha's hat back then, around the time I learned Dick Armey wouldn't marry me, and before I was lucky enough to win Freaky's hand.  Lonnie, I'll always owe you.

Now, as the seasons are about to change,… Read full post »

I just got home from Midnight Hardball -- yes, it keeps the kids off the streets -- and I'm watching Bobby Jindal's "rebuttal" to Barack Obama's stunning faux-SOTU tonight for a second time (I wrote about it all here.)

Still, I think you get a few things upon a… Read full post »

Lots of people here are talking about how important Karen has become in their lives, and I wanted to share a story about how she helped me, particularly, last April. It was a tough time: We were trying to decide between New York and California colleges for my daughter; the primary… Read full post »

It was a forlorn hope that Bruce Springsteen would mention Pat Tillman, I suppose. Overall, I'm the wrong demographic for the Super Bowl. Obviously.

Maybe it's the Dick Armey toxins from this week, but I thought the ads were more sexist and idiotic than usual. Even though I actually like… Read full post »

Will Bruce Springsteen mention Pat Tillman, the Arizona Cardinals star whose death by friendly fire in Afghanistan was covered up by the Bush administration? He was pitch perfect with Pete Seeger at the "We Are One" concert two weeks ago; I'm not sure he'll interrupt the party for this, but I… Read full post »

I'm going everywhere I can to try to thank people for all their sympathetic and hilarious commisseration on the Dick Armey, um, incident. So here I am. I was awed by the creativity and heart of all the people who posted their reactions to Open in the last couple of days.… Read full post »

I loved hearing that Obama told Republicans griping about his stimulus proposal, "I won," meaning he has the political capital to do what he wants. I was particularly happy when I read what GOP Rep. Eric Canter was griping about: One of the best parts of Obama's proposal, to expand tax… Read full post »

I regret recently wading into a raging blog and comments war that is supposedly about Israel's incursion into Gaza, but is actually about...well, I'm not ready to judge what it's about.

All I know is that I believe in nonviolent resistance whenever possible, and to me that means I should… Read full post »