This morning while rinsing out my hair color, the 1957 commercial for Clairol home hair dye sang into my imagination’s ear: “Does She or Doesn’t She? Only her hair dresser knows for sure.” The urgency of keeping hair color a… Continue Reading
When a distressed couple looks to me to referee their repeated argument, the lyrics from “Ah Yes, I Remember It Well”(“Gigi,” 1951*) sometimes relieve the tension. He: She: We met at nine We met at eight. I was on time.… Continue Reading
According to the Bowker Books in Print database (courtesy of the WSJ article “New Ways to Get Kids to Behave”), the number of parenting books published or distributed rose from 2,774 in 2007 to 3,520 in 2011. I’ll bet most… Continue Reading
I’m the only one in my family with a green thumb. I’ve got foster plants from almost every relative, which I’ve nursed back from the vegetative graveyard, and they’ve taken over my house. My husband is quite tolerant of it, given… Continue Reading
My strongest and most vivid memories are false! It’s rare that we can ever reconstruct what “really” happened, but in two cases, I saw clearly, not through the glass darkly. The earlier vignette is a story I shared proudly and… Continue Reading
c Teen suicide–two words that should never appear next to each other. The alarming frequency of this terrifying occurrence has come to public attention during this pandemic. We tell ourselves: No surprise; it’s bad for teens to be stuck inside… Continue Reading
‘The failure to win “the war on cancer” has been blamed on many factors, … But recently a new culprit has emerged: too many basic scientific discoveries… are wrong.’~C. Glenn Begley It’s nothing new. Over 3 decades ago the problem was… Continue Reading
So today is National Cancer Survivors Day. This special day prompts 2 questions: 1. First–What does it mean to be a cancer survivor? 2. And, then, what’s the value of a special day? We understand what it means to be… Continue Reading
After over a decade of – granted, very rocky – general stability, I suffered a mental health episode in my late 30s that both came as quite a shock to me and pretty much knocked me out of the playing… Continue Reading
What are two major miseries of our well-off modern society? Obesity and sleeplessness. No surprise that they seem to be connected; looks like those who fail to get enough sleep are more likely to be overweight. They’re connected in… Continue Reading
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, in their paper “Policy Impact: Prescription Painkiller Overdoses,” declared prescription drug abuse “an epidemic” in the United States. By far the biggest factor in prescription drug abuse is an eruption in prescription painkiller abuse. The… Continue Reading
One of my jobs as an adviser to couples is to inquire about early warning signs. In the Oct. 13 New Yorker I read the story of one Mathew Martoma, whose long-held secret was outed when the feds arrested him, in… Continue Reading
