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…
cultural beliefs
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…
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,…
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…
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’…
Spiritual Spring Break
It’s that time of year again–empty beer bottles are sprouting in my garden like so many crocuses, flocks of young chicks in bikini tops and belly rings keep swooping into my neighborhood Starbucks, and, if the boys who have rented the apartment across the courtyard are any indication, young men’s fancy is turning to lust….