I saw a poem in a New York Times opinion piece. It was typeset as prose, in-line. But it is most definitely a poem, so I took some liberties with the design to present it to you here: Every day, women across the country consider the risks. That is our day job and our night […]
Blog
Scary Woman
Yesterday a dear friend told me that I am scary. Or maybe I should say she reminded me of that. She offered that reminder when I was venting about a campus committee meeting. In the esteemed group of faculty and administrators at the meeting, I found myself to be the only person who could make […]
Hens Lose at Chicken
An article in a recent issue of the American Economic Review has a big title: Gender Differences in Accepting and Receiving Requests for Tasks with Low Promotability. In our research we find that, relative to men, women are more likely to volunteer, more likely to be asked to volunteer, and more likely to accept direct […]
Time, Continued
Time has been on my mind. I have two watches. My running watch and my work watch. They are both broken right now. That means I am out of my habit of wearing a watch to sleep. DH has long suggested that consulting my watch in the middle of the night is not good for […]
It’s Going to Look Worse Before it Looks Better
Warning: this post is about a medical issue. It might be TMI for some of you. I went to the dermatologist last fall to have her look at a spot on my arm. That spot was fine. As a thorough professional though, she took out her magnifying specs and scrutinized my skin from head to […]
Gorilla Girl
In Anne Lamott’s Bird by Bird is the story of the woman mauled by a gorilla. “Pain,” she says. “You don’t know pain.” The “story” is a joke, actually, with the punchline, “He doesn’t write. He doesn’t call.” Annie tells it much better. For me, I don’t need the whole telling, just the punchline. It’s […]
Happy Birthday, Cyber Lil!
Tomorrow would have been my grandmother’s 101st birthday. I recently heard our new dean tell her origin story as a first generation college student. I am not. In fact, the grandmother I celebrate today, Lillian Bunin, was a math major at Hunter College, which makes me a third generation STEM nerd. In addition to sharing […]
The Marguerite
This is a true story. It happened twenty years ago, but this is how I remember it. I was a graduate student at Stanford. We lived in student housing on campus. Jim was teaching at Burlingame High School. He usually took the CalTrain to work instead of fighting the traffic on the 101. We had […]
Thick Skin
“Listen,” you say, and you pause, like, “I’m trying to figure out how to phrase this.” That’s when I pull out the thick skin, the kind women always keep tied around their waists like an extra flannel shirt, ready to throw on before meetings or rape trials, or walking down the street, or making small-talk […]