On a recent short getaway I was sitting over breakfast one morning with my friend B, clearly jonesing from both the absence of my netbook and the dearth of decent newspapers available at the hotel at which we were staying. While I pushed my eggs around my plate, B pulled out his Kindle, [...]
Weirdest story of the week: The New York Times today ran a piece on some schools and some school officials discouraging students from having a “best” friend. Being friends with everyone is supposed to, well, put an end to bullying.
I was bulled in middle school and I have written a seminal article on school bullying [...]
Bill Press had a discussion on the “war” in Afghanistan on his radio show this morning. I put the word “war” in quotation marks because it remains difficult for me to decide whether this is an actual war or another incursion/occupation based on our idea of promoting democracy around the world—even in places [...]
Belief systems are a funny thing. They’re hard felt, hard won and nearly impossible to shake. And unfortunately, most of them are often built on things other than facts.
Polls frequently tell us what the American public “believes.” We “believe” that health care reform will not make a difference in our lives; we [...]
In the Christian tradition, Lent is a period of forty days, beginning today, Ash Wednesday, when the observant go into a period of denial, penance, and prayer, and, more commonly give up something important to them until Easter. While, as a Jew, I do not subscribe to the risen Christ—and can’t really reconcile [...]
“I’m going to go out in the yard and eat worms,” is how the rest of that sad ditty goes. If you didn’t say it as a child, you know someone who did. And we have all certainly felt that way more than once or twice.
Arguably, to no one does this lament resonate more than [...]
As women, we’ve all had our “aha moments. Mine came when I watched Anita Hill testify at the Clarence Thomas confirmation hearings in the early Nineties. I found nothing she said fantastic or unbelievable; in my experience, it all seemed like it could easily have happened.As I listened to her testimony, I realized that what [...]
My daughter asks a lot of questions; she wants to know the definitions of words, what things mean she hears on the news, what I think of something on Facebook or You Tube. She needs help choosing books to read, formulating political ideas, and coming to conclusions.
Dictionary, encyclopedia, library, newscast, advice columnist, that’s me, [...]
“I’m looking forward to Christmas,” an old friend tells me over the phone. She’s spending it with her Jewish ex-husband and two half-Jewish college-aged daughters. “I love spending Christmas with the Jews.”
The stereotype in America has long been that on Christmas day Jews go out for Chinese food and see a movie. This [...]
“Every customer is valuable and, they’re even more valuable today because there are fewer of them.” Ron Frasch, chief merchant of Saks Fifth Avenue, on improving service in the holiday season.”
The New York Times, Tuesday, December 22, 2009
Some many years ago when I was childless and still [...]
