[I originally posted this on January 5, 2006. I'm running it again, with slight editing. The title refers to Charlie Brown's plaintive cry as he tries to reconcile his "commercial dog" with the party atmosphere of his play rehearsals and the original nativity story.]...
It's the article that everyone has blogged about and discussed, and I know I'm about two months late, but I still want to make some notes. If you want a nuanced reading of Kate Bolick's All the Single Ladies, which came out in the November 2011 Atlantic, please go...
As a woman who didn't marry until 41 and who doesn't live in a state that contains anyone I'm related to, I have experience spending holidays alone. Sometimes I minded, sometimes I didn't. I became very self-reliant and learned to find things to do whether it was...
I just read this article online: Black Dogs Face a Hard Choice at Shelter. It discusses how shelter dogs that happen to be black (at least in the U.S.) have a really hard time getting adopted because so many people don't want a "BBD" or big black dog. Guesses for this...
Bob stood in the kitchen, getting a drink of water. Ozzie stood in the kitchen, staring at him. Me: So you don't mind him staring at you right now? Bob: Nope. You know why? Me: Why? Bob: Because he's a dog and that's what dogs do. Me: You know what doesn't stare at...
I recently watched a film that I should have seen decades ago: Bridget Fonda and Jennifer Jason Leigh in Single White Female, which came out in 1992. It was one of those movies that featured a woman who becomes increasingly unstable and dangerous, in the tradition of...
It's called SlutWalk Chicago and it takes place on Saturday June 4th. From Newser.com: It all started with some ill-considered advice from a Toronto policeman. To prevent rape, he told a group of law students, “Avoid dressing like sluts.” That gaffe sparked a...
It's Mother's Day and my husband will be working in a very busy restaurant all day. I'll be visiting my mother later this month and my friends are all with their mothers, so I'm thinking of taking myself to the creepiest museum in Chicago: The International Museum of...
Would someone get this walking carpet out of my way! (What's your favorite Star Wars quote?)
I am a 44-year-old Mexican American woman who has lots of friends, but most of them have never been married. Also, most of my friends are not mothers. I somehow manage to seek out peers who have not followed the socially prescribed life path. Sunday, May 8th is...
I'm re-posting this photo from last year's Easter post because it's a party cake in the shape of an instrument of horrible torture and death. And could there possibly be more frosting on this thing? What a festive-grim holiday. Happy Easter! Fight the grimness!
I don't like Easter. It seems to me like the sad little cousin of Christmas, destined to live in the shadow of the biggest American holiday. Easter has no compelling and uplifting narrative, like the story of Jesus' birth. Instead it has the story of Jesus' torture...
At the age of 44, I know I am middle-aged. I don't have a problem with this. It's only logical: middle-aged means you're roughly halfway through your life. In fact the next time someone tries to argue that being in our 40s -- or even late 30s -- is not middle-aged, I...
I'm excited about an NPR article called "Being bilingual may boost your brain power," but not because of what the article says about bilingual children having stronger executive control systems in their brains, making it easier for them to focus on what's relevant and...
It occurs to me that anyone who has just started reading my blog might wonder why I have chosen to stay child-free. The reasons appear in a post I wrote over five years ago, at the age of 39. Take a look. This post also contains the phrase "at the...