ArcaMax

I asked my husband the other day how the vice presidential debate went. Because I no longer subject myself to torturous events that have absolutely no bearing on my life, I hadn't watched.

"Not good," he said.

He was worried that J.D. Vance's smooth performance against Tim Walz meant trouble for the Democratic ticket.

"Don't worry," I told ...Read more

It's hardly even fall, but already I'm looking for airline tickets for Thanksgiving, my jaw agape in horror at the prices.

It's never been cheap to travel during the holidays, so I can't tell if I'm just getting crotchetier about the cost or if flying is truly getting that much more expensive.

Whatever the answer, I'm committed, begrudgingly...Read more

I took the kids to the beach today.

It was a school night, they hadn't started their homework yet and I had a mound of laundry the size of Godzilla dropping in the basement, but when I picked them up from school, I looked up at the cloudless sky, saw the temperature was an unseasonable 83 degrees, and said, "What the heck."

I asked myself ...Read more

The least funny joke told during the most recent presidential debate was former President Donald Trump falsely accusing Haitian immigrants in Ohio of eating people's dogs and cats.

Oh, sure, it was hilarious at first. Vice President Kamala Harris even laughed when he said it.

I mean, how could anyone think immigrants are stealing people's ...Read more

Is no one else tired of this?

That's what I asked myself Wednesday morning as I watched the news of yet another school shooting -- this one in suburban Barrow County, Georgia: four dead, nine others injured at Apalachee High School.

The images on TV were too familiar: shaking children describing the sights of their friends and teachers ...Read more

In case you've had occasion to forget it in the last 30 seconds, Donald Trump and the rest of the GOP commentariat would like to remind you that Kamala Harris is a woman. She's also Black, they keep saying, and Indian.

Trump recently shared on social media posts that have suggested Harris traded sexual favors for career advancement and that ...Read more

I hate Jonathan Franzen.

I know, I know, he's a Great Author(TM). Super talented, apparently. But I don't hate him on literary grounds. My hatred also has nothing to do with professional jealousy (I don't think. Though if that's an underlying reason, I'm fine with that, too).

The man could be the next coming of William Faulkner, Toni ...Read more

Now that President Joe Biden has stepped aside in the upcoming presidential election, Donald Trump has been forced to redesign his campaign, and he's handling the transition with all the aplomb and grace you might expect, which is to say, none.

He's done a lot of complaining about how unfair it is that he has to start over against a different...Read more

I've lost a little bit of weight lately, and when people ask how, I tell them it's easy.

You just cut out dairy, gluten and processed sugar, and severely limit caffeine and alcohol. Just like magic, you'll almost instantly lose all pleasure in eating -- life, even! -- and each meal becomes a brief, joyless affair. Then, add in about seven ...Read more

The pressure for President Joe Biden to step aside in the upcoming campaign, allowing a younger (it is presumed) and healthier (it is hoped) candidate to take over for the Democrats, has intensified.

Every day -- every hour, lately -- more Democratic representatives and senators entreat him to pass the torch. The New Yorker recently published...Read more

A mentor of mine died last night.

She'd been sick, with leukemia, and had undergone both a stem cell transplant and chemo, but her cancer had been in remission, and it seemed as if she was traveling rapidly down the road to recovery.

She must have had a turn for the worse, though, because her mother said her death was unexpected and quick. ...Read more