Author, Journalist, Pop Folklorist
Navigating a modern world with the help of time-tested traditions
What is a Liminal Stage?
Liminal stages are psychological thresholds, times of transition when we stand “betwixt and between” one state and another. The biggies are birth, marriage, death-cultures develop splashy rituals around these transitions to ease the anxiety they provoke. For the smaller, but significant, crossroads we traverse every day, I offer the celebrations, superstitions, and coping mechanisms found in this blog.
So, tomorrow’s my nameday. But I wouldn’t rush out and pick out my gift just yet. Because tomorrow is also, according to some, the beginning of the end of the world. So you probably won’t live to see a thank you note. If you don’t know what a nameday is, it’s the day the saint…
Read more about It’s the End of the World As We Know It…and I Feel Fine.
Mother’s Day is a good day to be pregnant. I would like to think that sounds poetic, like the first line of Leonard Cohen’s poem, Days of Kindness, which begins, “Greece is a good place/to look at the moon, isn’t it?” But I fear it just sounds simplistic. Yeah, mother’s day celebrates moms and…
There are so many things I love about our Miami Beach apartment–the mermaid mosaic on the stairwell wall, the starfish tiles in the palm-tree-filled courtyard, the flamingoes on the wrought iron gate, and the perfect location, a block away from pedestrian Lincoln Road, and three blocks from the beach. When my not-yet-fiancé and I visited…
When I lived in a small Greek village in 2002, I was informed that on May first I should rush out and pick a wild plant called mai–which sounds much like the word for May–so I could “catch the May” and gain control over the month. Apparently, it’s an unruly month, full of wild, powerful,…
Just a quick follow-up to Wednesday’s blog which offended some strapless dress wearers and speculated as to what the now-royal bride would wear today. Personally, I was wearing a blue maternity robe while I watched The Kiss(es) on the Balcony. The whole scene was sweet and romantic, but I loved the curmudgeons among the wedding…
Read more about A Tale of Two Graces: What Kate and I Wore to the Royal Wedding
This morning my mother apologized. It’s a rare occurrence, but what was even more remarkable was the topic about which she felt guilty. “I was reading somewhere a woman remembering her mother waking her up to watch Princess Diana get married 30 years ago, and now the writer is going to wake up her own…
I love covering places that inspire me—from Greece to Nicaragua and everywhere in between—for outlets such as Travel+Leisure, Condé Nast Traveler, InStyle and more. Join me on my trips here.
From parenting to politics to pop culture, I’ve got opinions —and I’m not afraid to share them in The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, and elsewhere. Learn why I’m a bad mom here.