Featured
On Kissinger
My father roundly disliked Henry Kissinger. Hindsight suggests this was prompted, at least at first, by the young Kissinger's more-than-willing participation in the Nixon [...]
How deep is the wound?
My grandfather was a German Jew who moved from a town in Lower Silesia to Toulouse, in southern France, immediately after the end of [...]
Barbie: beginning to become
Barbie has had many names throughout the years. Twist and Turn Barbie tells what she’s capable of. Astronaut Barbie identifies what she does. Barbie [...]
The kidnapped bucket
It was on a hot and sad Monday morning that I discovered the disappearance of my wet waste “poubelle agréée,” as I call, à [...]
Boyhood Empire
23. Father Knows Best: Misunderstandings
With my mother now a resident of Neverland, camped out in Europe by choice and what she might do next as ambiguous as the [...]
22. Female Trouble: Samantha the Wise
After I interrupted Tony and Sarah in their anatomical machinations in my garage, and was humiliated as a result, I worked hard for Sarah’s [...]
21. Female Trouble: A Post-mother life
The surge of female trouble that culminated, at least for me, in my mother’s decision that she would not be returning from a vacation [...]
20. Female Trouble: Things Fall Apart
If the end of the Jurassic Period marked the beginning of the end for the dinosaurs, my twelfth birthday (two years after our return [...]
In Case You Missed It
Divorce or un-divorce?
An old friend recently filled me in on the details of a circle of friends and acquaintances that goes back [...]
The taste of mustard
As I was sitting at the table, someone said, “Have I ever steered you wrong?” I looked up to see [...]
Fall snapshots
In San Francisco, autumn began on a melancholy note. The passing of Senator Dianne Feinstein has been marked by many [...]
Of lines and bylines
One evening, I was telling my daughter Julia a bedtime story about Fassi’s, my favorite gelateria in Rome. I was [...]
Belovid Dad
My nuke-powered teen daughter is lovid with me. No, not livid. That would be too easy, and Rebecca backs away [...]
The vegan days
In the summer, we have the whole family. Stepkids, friends of the stepkids, the new wife of the step-grandson, the [...]
The perfume of roses
It was a rainy spring this year in Salento and in much of the rest of Italy. It was also [...]
Tutu’s fluke
Every family that's lived on the Long Island coast east of New York City has a fish story" So it’s [...]