Amy_scoop

UrbanBaby Redux

I don’t know if anyone popped over on Elisa’s link to the article about UrbanBaby, but it had some real gems. According to the reporter, no matter who you are or what your stance is on any given parenting topic, the anonymous New York moms on UrbanBaby are gonna slice and dice you. And maybe…just […] Continue reading →

July 20, 2006

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All Other Things Being Equal…

The Education Department just released a report that compared reading and math scores of fourth and eighth grade students in public schools and private schools. And guess what? Except in the case of eighth grade reading, public schools students fared as well as or better than their private school peers. Here’s the reason why the […] Continue reading →

July 17, 2006

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Anti-Abortion Activist Finds His Muse

She existed in his mind for a very long time, this unapologetic hussy who relished both out-of-wedlock sex and the harrowing procedure of abortion. But then it happened: he found Caroline Weber. The only problem is, he found her in The Onion, and he didn’t realize that Caroline was only a mirage, and her saucy […] Continue reading →

July 16, 2006

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Chivalry or Thuggery?

Not much of a sports watcher, I was swept up in the World Cup frenzy nonetheless. It started out as a general appreciation for any competition that was international in scope, as if somehow it would serve as a counterbalance to the US’s arrogant, isolationist bent under the Bush regime. But it didn’t take long […] Continue reading →

July 12, 2006

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Isolation Drift

I missed this story a couple of weeks ago, but a keynote speaker at a conference I attended today brought it up. A survey funded by the National Science Foundation was conducted in 1985 and then again in 2004. The results point out a steep decline in American social ties. Any of you who may […] Continue reading →

July 12, 2006

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Afflufemza

Between working and parenting, I don’t have time to read books about working mothers vs. the stay-at-home variety. So what I do instead is read articles and reviews about such books, and then I read letters to the editor blasting those articles, and the reviewer striking back. I imagine it’s almost as good as reading […] Continue reading →

July 6, 2006

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Beer Bong Brain

A recent article in the NYTimes compiles the latest research on teen drinking, and it paints a chilling picture. Up till now, my fears for my own child’s future partying have centered around the classic situational dangers: driving drunk, having unprotected sex, drowning. In short, dangers that can be “contained” if the drinking is done […] Continue reading →

July 4, 2006

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Nipple Confusion

You gotta fight for your right to nurse next to a rack of hot pink beaded thongs! This Saturday, July 1 at 1PM, a Nurse-In is to take place at Victoria’s Secret stores nationwide. The milkfest is being staged to protest incidents that occurred at various Victoria’s Secret stores, during which unenlightened sales gals prevented […] Continue reading →

June 30, 2006

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More than One Way to Turn the Tide

The Linda Hirshman Responds diary gave rise to a rich comment thread. In it, Brave teases out a piece of Hirshman’s message that resonates with me. She paraphrases Linda’s beef thusly: And if there are no professional women hitting up against the glass ceiling, demanding that corporations change, there isn’t much hope of the change […] Continue reading →

June 25, 2006

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The Smeary Lens of Nostalgia

Over at Salon, King Kaufman interviews Cristopher Healy, who’s written a book called “Pop Culture: The Sane Man’s Guide to the Insane World of New Fatherhood.” One of the interviewer’s questions stuck me as especially poignant: I find myself wanting my kids to have the same kinds of experiences that I had growing up — […] Continue reading →

June 22, 2006

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