03/14/11

On Being Femme V. Female

I love being a woman. Okay, one might say, this is a no-brainer—I am one after all. But there are many women who are envious of male attributes: the ability to pee standing up, fewer rules about staying out late during adolescence, being able to drink more with less impact, and they would be willing to forgo femaleness for a few days in order to enjoy the benefits of being a boy.

Posted at 11:32 PM | Permalink | Comments: 3

02/02/11

Foodies Took All the Joy Out of Cooking

Within days of deciding that my spouse was “the one” a couple decades ago, I went out and bought The Joy of Cooking. It was like screaming to the rooftop—“I want to be this woman’s wife!” And since being a wife meant somewhere along the way I needed to provide a meal, I bought the one cookbook I knew could help.

I grew up with The Joy of Cooking. It said how to do stuff. What temperature to use. What to expect. And we had the war-era one that used margarine instead of butter and expected that you didn’t have ingredients to spare and wanted to cook frugally. We did! The only other cookbook I’d ever used was The I Hate to Cook Book by Peg Bracken. Good cookie recipes.

The thing you need to know is...

Posted at 05:56 PM | Permalink | Comments: 1

01/26/11

The Ripple Effect

It started with the new furniture, became more complicated when the tree left the building, and the lamps were the straw that broke the camel’s back. Whatever the precipitating factors, we’re experiencing the Ripple Effect in a big way around here, and I only hope the tsunami stops soon.

The Ripple Effect is that thing that happens when you change anything in the household. Like when you add the Christmas tree (if that is your celebration of choice), you have to upset the delicate balance of objets d’art that adorn your home, because there simply would not be room otherwise. No one would be able to see the tree for the forest of stuff surrounding it.

The trouble is that when you attempt to regain spatial equilibrium after the pine needles are swept up,...

Posted at 08:25 PM | Permalink | Comments: 1