Student loan debt: No way out
This is the hardest post I’ve ever had to write, about my deepest source of shame and guilt. A quarter of a century ago I borrowed an astronomical amount of money to go to law school, and I will quite probably die owing enough money to buy a small island. When I read this, I [...]
Klout: Do I Kare?
When I first received invitations to join something called “Klout,” I dismissed them. They appeared on my Facebook page, and I imagined that they referred to either another tedious and loathsome game or to some kind of shopping thing that would seduce me into hours spent looking at trendy bling. I also have a preternatural [...]
When lax parenting ruins nice restaurants
Nothing ruins a nice dining experience like kids gone wild!
‘Fifty Shades of Grey’: Junk food for the soul
First, the confessions: I have not read any of the Shades of Grey books. Not so much as a pale, dove color or the darkness of charcoal has entered my readerly consciousness. (Aside from a snarky round-up of purple snippets). Also, I admit that I am jealous of their success, and I totally get it [...]
Why does Facebook think I have gout?
I do not have gout. I have only one of the risk factors, and I’m working on that one. My friend Betsy, nearly twenty years my junior, certainly does not have gout, and my slender, healthy, athletic, virtual friend Susan does not have gout. Despite the fact that all three of us are fairly unlikely [...]
Pinterest (uh), what is it good for? Absolutely something
As you may know, I like to view my very-nearly-fifty-year-old self as all hip and early adopterish. I have an unnatural dread of youngsters snickering as I hold up my new-fangled thingamabobber and look at it over the rims of my glasses, saying something like “tell me again, what button I push to see the [...]
‘Downton Abbey’: Not just a soap opera
The Sunday nights of my childhood, at least four years of it, were spent sitting hard against the footboard of my parents’ bed watching “Upstairs, Downstairs” on Masterpiece Theater. For a child who spent summers in England, read Burnett, Enright and Nesbit, and answered the phone “Graham, residence, Ann speaking,” it was a natural fit. [...]
