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Eleni Gage

Author, Journalist, Pop Folklorist

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The Liminal Stage

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.

Mazel Tov. Now Please Shut Up.

You’ve probably seen the proposal video making the rounds this week—a gent in Portland organized about 60 friends and family members into a lip-synched song and dance number to the tune of Bruno Mars’s “I Think I Wanna Marry You” in order to pop the question to his adorable pixie-haircut-sporting lady love. There are the…

Read more about Mazel Tov. Now Please Shut Up.

Dispatch from the “Mommy Room”

I was trolling Facebook on my phone and sloppily dribbling breast milk onto my skirt when I first saw the Time magazine cover asking me if I’m “mom enough.” On the one hand, the breast milk confirmed I am, indeed, a mother. On the other, the question, with it’s sassy little adverb, and the picture…

Read more about Dispatch from the “Mommy Room”

Brown and Out in Beverly Hills

Ashton Kutcher—what were you thinking, dude? I know it’s hard to stay grounded when you’re constantly surrounded by celebrities and security. But what part of you thought it would be a good idea to put on “brownface” and play a creepy would-be Bollywood producer named Raj lmaking dubious use of a video dating service, all…

Read more about Brown and Out in Beverly Hills

Amalía Has Two Easters

A few weeks ago my mother, Joanie, called me up all atwitter, as she often does after reading not one but two newspapers first thing in the morning. (Bless her heart, she is singlehandedly keeping the physical, print version of the newspaper alive.) “Guess what!” she chirped. “The newspaper says that according to the census,…

Read more about Amalía Has Two Easters

Confessions of a Bad Mother

In the last two weeks I’ve been called self-satisfied, low-class, controlling, shallow, sexist, smug, priggish, crazed, repulsive, creepy, trashy, frivolous, provincial, disgusting, and just plain horrible. My crime?  I pierced my six-month-old daughter’s ears at the request of my Nicaraguan husband, an experience I wrote about for the nytimes.com‘s “Townies” column. It was fun to…

Read more about Confessions of a Bad Mother

Mini in Miami

Amalía and I are in New York, but we brought a little bit of Miami with us. Two little bits actually: the shiny gold studs in Amalía’s tiny ears. Read all about it in the post “Baby’s First Bling”, which I wrote for the Townies column of the Opinionator blog in the New York Times’…

Read more about Mini in Miami

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Eleni Gage

About Eleni

The daughter of a Greek father and a Minnesotan mother. I grew up in Athens, Greece, and the suburbs of Worcester, Massachusetts—
and became obsessed with cultural rituals and traditions along the way.

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Lucky in Love

is a guide to planning a wedding that’s unique, meaningful, and, above all, auspicious, with the help of customs from all over the world

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Travel Writing

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.

 

Essays and Reviews

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.

Lifestyle Articles

I may not always live my best life, but I’m trying to live a better one! I enjoy learning from the experts when writing about everything from reading more to wasting less. Pick up some tips here.

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