Whither Family Values
Published November 28, 2010
As this column appears in print, on Thanksgiving eve, many of you will be preparing for the annual ritual of regression to infantile relational patterns fueled by massive intakes of “comfort foods,” bouts of neurotic aggression abetted by alcohol and football watching, potentially fatal truth telling as a side effect of turkey-borne tryptophan narcosis, and [...]
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My mother’s last days
Published September 2, 2010
Mom made meticulous plans for everything in her life. But when she neared the end, she wasn’t sure what those were.
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Chronic Insanity
Published June 26, 2009
Our so-called health-care “system” promotes and exploits the peculiar American illusion that the body is invulnerable and the spirit autonomous; that human need is a temporary aberration.
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One Big Happy Family
Published February 3, 2009
Rebecca Walker’s new anthology has some great essays on how we really live now, including one by me, “Love, Money, and the Unmarried Couple.” You can buy it here.
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Poli Psy: “Country” Girl
Published September 24, 2008
After three days sequestered in a media-free room, Sarah Palin emerged to deliver what the AP called “a star-turning performance.” Katie Couric pronounced her “feisty, folksy, fiery and emotional.” A delegate from Wisconsin gave the bumper-sticker makers the slogan they should be copyrighting now: “She is one kick-ass lady.” The Palin family played their supporting [...]
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Poli Psy: “Family Trade Center”
Published September 27, 2006
On the fifth anniversary of September 11, I went to see Oliver Stone’s new movie, World Trade Center. I sat in the last row of the mini-cinema at the maxiplex, under the projector, trying for enough distance to take in the panorama. I expected huge images — and, because I’m a born-and-bred New Yorker, huge [...]