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Consolations of Middle Age

From the February 2024 Print Edition

This past June I attended my daughter’s high school graduation. Observing the wrinkles, gray hair, and softening jawlines of the other parents, I concluded that most people weren’t aging well. A few mothers, hoping to escape these indignities, had been victims of aggressive plastic surgeons, but . . . . Continue Reading »

Leisure and Liberality

From the October 2023 Print Edition

Conservative commentators have long bemoaned the proliferation of “studies” fields in the university. Women’s and gender studies are well known, but now students can take courses in topics as unusual as “surf studies” and “fat studies.” Given all the boring lectures that undergraduates . . . . Continue Reading »

Adventures in Reading

From the February 2023 Print Edition

I begin with my conclusion: If you are reading this review, then you should probably own this book. This is especially true if you know or care about any children or teenagers. Every parent is aware of the innumerable guides that explain how to raise children, to feed and clothe them, to . . . . Continue Reading »

T Is for Timeless

From the November 2021 Print Edition

Once a month, a robin’s-egg-blue box arrives at our house. “Mama! Mama! My books are here!” shouts my six-year-old daughter as she runs from the front door to the kitchen. We open the box to find personalized stickers, bookmarks, posters, and sometimes coloring pages or little paper games. The . . . . Continue Reading »

Breakfast at Kim's

From the May 2021 Print Edition

If you arrive at Kim’s Diner before noon, your best option for breakfast is either the homemade biscuits with Texas-style white gravy or the pancakes-and-sausage plate. Lunch and dinner offerings are good, basic American food: grilled burgers and sandwiches half-wrapped in butcher paper so they . . . . Continue Reading »

My Recipe Binder

From the June/July 2020 Print Edition

For those of us who were adults before the advent of the Internet, a three-ring binder was the best way to keep track of our favorite recipes. Most of the women I know still have one, filled with recipes torn from magazines or printed from websites, handwritten by friends on index cards and . . . . Continue Reading »

Notes on Summer Camp

From the December 2019 Print Edition

The buildings at Green Cove consist of a main lodge, an infirmary, and a variety of cabins arranged in “lines” according to the ages of the girls who ­inhabit them. Most of the camp’s structures were built in the 1940s and have changed little since then. The cabins have concrete floors, . . . . Continue Reading »

Heterodox Woman

From the December 2018 Print Edition

The Diversity Delusion:  How Race and Gender Pandering Corrupt the University and Undermine Our Culture by heather mac donald st. martin’s, 288 pages, $28.99 There’s much talk about listening to women’s voices in the present moment, but I wonder if there is much room for heterodox . . . . Continue Reading »