Will Dance for Food...

Like everyone else, I’m feeling the pain of this economic shitstorm. I’m looking for other work, cutting spending left and right, and I’m starting to make unsavory jokes about “finding a corner,” because the sad truth is that I’m more likely to earn money by selling...

Pretentious Sunday Musings...

The hardest part of acknowledging privilege, it seems to me, is to overcome your impulse to claim authority, to know things in an absolute way. We are taught that knowledge is power, and it is, but not always in the literal terms in which we conceive that phrase. Because knowledge was not handed down...

On Women and Chutzpah...

I had an experience the other day in which a dude called upon me to prop up his ego. I’d love to tell you the particulars, but I feel like I’d like this post to survive into perpetuity, and I don’t want this person, who is, after all, a friend, to feel any more targeted than he has...

There’s No Place Like Home…E...

Just a quick hi and some London trip highlights, ladies, because I need to catch up on my DVRd “Real Housewives” before I crash from jet-lag. When I got on the plane last Thursday, I was emotionally wrung out after a couple weeks of serious work stuff and continuing family hardships. I needed...

London Calling...

So I’ll be in the UK next month, vacationing and enjoying the benefits of the weak pound. (Don’t judge! When the dollar was weak, I put a lot of Brit friends up on my sofa so they could enjoy New York on the cheap.)  If any of you gentle readers want to meet me for a pint somewhere in Londontown...

Perfectionism, Feminism, and The Man...

Newt (not the Nefarious one) wants you to fail, too. Over the weekend, I got together with a colleague to drink nuclear-strength coffee and grouse about our writing-intensive summer plans:  deadlines, uncertainty, anxiety.  He mentioned the chapter “Shitty First Drafts” from Anne Lamott’s...

On the Privilege of Whining...

This monkey don't know how good she's got it. So white, affluent women are depressed, says the Guardian. Hard on its heels is the news, courtesy of New York Times film critic A. O. Scott, that all of Gen X is having a midlife crisis.  Generation X, defined as those born between 1961 and 1981,...

The Birthday I’m Supposed to Dread...

Y’all, today is my 35th birthday. And to paraphrase another spring holiday, it has me asking “Why is this birthday different from other birthdays?” Actually, the question comes out a little more like “Why the fuck is everyone acting like this birthday is so different from all...

I Am Woman, Hear Me Fix It!...

My toilet got clogged and backed up this morning. I’ll spare you the details. Suffice it to say, it was an EPIC TOILET FAIL. The grossness was just beyond belief. Now, my building has a live-in super who we can call on in emergencies, but this was actually so gross that I was embarrassed to go...

A Portrait of the Blogger as a Hot Mess...

I had my annual pelvic exam/physical thing yesterday.  I wasn’t thrilled about it (oy, the scraping!), but neither was I terrified.  I was, however, nervous. My doc–a PCP/internist, not a gyno–is pretty good.  She’s very business-like, swift without being brusque, and lets...

Women and Mixed Martial Arts: A Guest Po...

Well, how does one begin a guest post? Carefully, I think. The topic I’m choosing to introduce myself with is why I am both a woman and a mixed martial arts fighter. For those of you unfamiliar with MMA, let me give you a little background. MMA is a form of fighting that incorporates elements of martial...

Be A Bitch: To the New York Times Public...

Dear Mr. Hoyt: I am writing to express how disgusted I was by Dennis Lim’s February 12 article about Roman Polanski. Certainly, the Times has given plenty of coverage to Polanski’s crime, including a 2009 editorial which read: This case has nothing to do with Mr. Polanski’s work or his...