My father died last year at the age of 93. In reality, he’d been dying for the last 15 years and his last breath was a sigh of relief. I had the honor of washing his corpse and dressing him before the undertaker wheeled him away. His naked body was…

I get a social security check once a month, and once a month I am reminded how little my working contribution was appreciated. For the amount of annoyance this check gives me, I really should tell the US government to keep it. For my 50 years of working (I started…

Black families are enjoying remote learning because it spares them the microaggressions of in-class learning. That makes sense to me. The New York Times article this morning doesn’t say remote learning is better overall than in-person instruction, but it does make clear that remote learning lessens one big obstacle: discrimination. …

The politics of humiliation. It seems to keep groups of people down for awhile until they explode in anger and rebel and overthrow governments and cut kings’ heads off and set fire to cities. One group of people hasn’t yet erupted. That would be us, the ladies. The Women’s March…

Natalie Angier presents a math problem for us to reckon with: “A son, in fact, may rightfully be thought of as a mama’s boy; he has her x chromosomes alive in every cell of his body….Thus he has more of his mother’s genes operating in his body than he does…

I have a son, too. Did I mention I have a son? Because I do. I think I referred once to his messy bedroom, but there’s more to him than that. He’s a fine man and an important story. He’s an important story because fine men carry the burden for…

Cognitive dissonance: a belief held with deep conviction the believer must have committed herself to the belief the belief has to be specific and part of daily life the believer must be a member of a social group that affirms the same thing the contradictory evidence has to be obvious…

When I became a grandparent I entered the world of parenting, again. It started on the day after the baby’s birth. My daughter attended the first class of her PhD program via Skype lying in the hospital bed. For the first four months I drove from Philadelphia to Pittsburgh and…

“Kelly Kulick’s win at the PBA (Professional Bowlers Association) Tour’s Tournament of Champions is not only historic, it serves as a motivational and inspirational event for girls and women competing at all levels all around the world.” — Billie Jean King, former tennis superstar and head of the Women’s Sports…