SLC has a great park though — I spent many a fine afternoon there when I was in grad school (it’s cheap! grad students can afford it!). They have beer, and baseball, and a beautiful view of the mountains.

WTF? 65 is what I HEAT my house to in the winter (sometimes the wood stove kicks it to 70 and then I’m miserable). Teaching drives me crazy because the buildings are all set at 70-72. Summer is hard. It cools down enough at night that I can often get by by opening all the windows at night/closing all day, but I did…

Ooh! ooh! ooh! My niece is playing the dead girl!!! My darling darling girl and soon you’ll all get to see how fabulous she is.

As someone who grew up in a cancer cluster on Chicago’s north shore, where our water was contaminated by the plume of PCBs and Dioxin drifting south from the Great Lakes Naval Base, as well as the spike in ag chemicals in the 1970s (oh, and the leaking radiation from the Zion nuclear power plant) — I’m not drinking…

I left the Catholic church ages ago, but I have to say, Laudito Si, the Pope’s encyclical on the environment is utterly beautiful. It stands with any of the great texts of environmentalism (and it’s really easy as a nonbeliever to swap out “God” for whatever prime signifier you prefer while reading it.)

Yes to all of this. I started babysitting for money when I was 10, and by 14 was buying all my own clothes. I NEVER wanted to be dependent on anyone, especially a man for money. I had a very fierce grandmother, who spent 40 years married to a drunk and being grudgingly supported by her parents (who wouldn’t let her…

That’s how I did it (also a Charlotte). I ran a full crew of younger brothers and boy cousins with a combination of bossiness and blocks to the head.

Of course. It was said metaphorically. However, at the time her public image *was* the nice white haired lady with the lemonade. In reality, she was coming down the lawn to ride their asses about what she wanted and where. These were folks used to dealing with very high-stress and high-end installations, and BB was…

I have a bunch of friends who put up tents and did State dinners during their time in the White House. As one of them said “She wasn’t exactly coming down the lawn with lemonade on a tray,” and as another said “meanest woman who ever lived.” So yeah. Not great to “the help.” Especially the help of color, who were not…

Goofy but not a terrible idea for folks who aren’t sure about keeping hens, especially as those are the same people who are not going to be able to kill their hens when they stop laying. The average backyard can handle 3-5 hens (NO ROOSTERS. EAT them for your neighbors’ sake), and hens only lay for about 3 years.…

I terminated a pregancy in early 2010 in large part because my insurance specifically excluded pregnancy and maternity. I was also in my late 40s, with a lovely partner who never wanted kids. But knowing that having that baby, especially as a high-risk older mother would bankrupt me, was a HUGE factor. When the ACA…

Ah, but what you can’t get from concentrate is the collagen-goodness and mouthfeel of real stock. A good stock is nearly gelatinous when you put it in the fridge. (I’m one of the weirdos who saves carcasses, then does them in my biggest stockpot, then does a raft, then pressure cans. Because I’m a little insane about…

My 80 yr old mother drinks a quart of vodka every 3-4 days (and chain smokes). She’s frail, but all her tests are good and I could be saddled with her for another decade or 2 (her mother lived to 102). Her older sister, who was a kind dear soul, managed to kill herself with booze in a mere 10 years. So who the fuck…

Grew up on the North Shore, where Mr. Pasquesi (father of actor David) had a fixture of a hot dog shop. A Pasquesi dog was boiled, on a very soft steamy bun, with some onions and a generous squeeze of yellow melted cheese gloop. And Cokes so over-carbonated they made your eyes water. Not a traditional Chicago dog, but…

Growing up white I thought the whole point of showing those photos was to teach us NOT TO BE THOSE WHITE PEOPLE. I remember thinking as a kid, “who would want to be caught forever looking that ugly? yelling like that at a little kid?” And here we are, 50 years later, and the answer is White Folks who voted for Trump.…

Oh great. More evidence that my alcoholic, chain-smoking, anorexic mother is going to live forever (while telling me how fat I am).

Yeah, my home town church would send you to the adjoining school gym if you were too late. Nope nope. I’ll stand in the vestibule with the Dads-who-don’t-want-to-be here. And book out after communion ... The worst is being sent to overflow rooms for funerals.

As a nanny and an auntie, I’ve taken a lot of small children to restaurants. I tell them explicitly that we’re going to practice our manners. Take them during off hours — late lunch, early dinner for example. And make it an event. Yes, they still make a mess, but how are they ever going to learn to behave if no one…

Mine came to visit this fall. He’s been in Europe for 25 years and I’ve seen him 3? 4? times. After he left, my beloved said “I know you *called* him ‘Dad,’ but he could have been anyone off the street for all the connection he had with you.” Yup. It was painful, but I got over it years ago, so go back to your child…

Not my definition — the demographers. They cut the Baby Boom off at 64. But 63-65 were the tail end for sure, schools were closing because of falling enrollment, and the big middle of the BB generation, those 10-15 years older than us, certainly fucked up everything by privatizing, cutting taxes, and thinking supply…