For the past 30 days, millions of people have watched the Karen Read trial live. I tuned in three weeks ago on a whim. At this point, I’m relieved the closing arguments are tomorrow because I’ve even changed the dog-walk schedule to accommodate voire dire. At first, I kept watching because I could imagine myself […]
Camouflaging is what women do to make sure no one thinks we’re weird. This means we end up camouflaging at work and being too exhausted to do it at home. But home is where we really need it, because the effect of camouflaging is to be more agreeable t0 other people. And the workplace doesn’t […]
My oldest kid is looking for internships. For those of you who have not had a kid call you hysterical because their life is over, let me tell you that all the good summer internships are given away in June of the summer before.
Ever since I read Emily Oster’s first book, I’ve tried to ignore her, but her bestselling books just kept coming. I found solace reading complaints about her sloppy analysis. And I took the MacArthur Foundation to be delivering a secret message when they gave her husband, Jesse Shapiro, a genius grant for describing misinformation in […]
The most shocking part of Sean Combs’ trial has been how many people were unmoved by the sight of domestic violence. Over and over again, we hear testimonies of people who watched Combs beat up Cassie Ventura and said nothing. Here’s the problem: what could they say? Given a horrific video of Combs beating her […]
Before there were charge cards, before there were dual-career families, there was second-grade me, shopping after school. “Charge it, please,” I’d say, like a suburban Eloise. I shopped because there was nothing to do at home after school except fighting with my brother. And every time one of us got hurt, we’d get in trouble […]
Child abuse is distorted love. Sometimes it’s broken bones, but often it’s parents who say they care while eroding a child’s sense of safety and worth. The Menendez brothers are getting a sentencing review, and after 30 years of a life sentence they could be released from prison. But what’s really on review is our […]
Nino and I sit at the table waiting for Z to come to dinner. He calls out, “One more minute!” from his bedroom more minutes than I can count. But I’m so happy he’s home on break that I wait.
Some people have a bank account. I have an email list. This explains why nothing makes me overreact more than when something goes wrong with my email list. People who see me overreact regularly will probably disagree. They’ll be like, “I saw you throw a fit about [insert one of 10,000 things here].” But trust […]
When my kids lived with me I felt like I had no control over when I could write, so I had to find happiness in helping my kids meet their goals. With both of them in college, I don’t set their goals anymore. So I’m trying to train myself to be happy when I write since that’s […]