Straight Talker

My friend Nell has always struck me as the kind of person who, if standing in line at the airport, might have told Mother Teresa to “hurry it up already.” I don’t know if it’s because she was raised in New York or survived the truth serum ’60s, but Nell...

Da Feet

On 83rd Street off Second Avenue in Manhattan, my wife Lala and I stopped to stare at a movie of two pinkish feet being massaged by hands stronger than I’d seen in any Baby Einstein video. We’d been hoofing it all day from the apartment where we were staying: north 60...

Sucker

We’re frantically preparing for what most sober adults would consider a bad mix: full moon, fire, electronics, piles of candy bars and 15 seventh-grade girls wielding cell phones as if they were luminescent ID badges for the hormonally inconvenienced. My daughter...

Teacher Knows Best

When I started working at the school where I currently teach, my daughter Poppy was only a few months old. I was coaching soccer then so I’d tuck her car seat behind the net, knowing there’d be more misses than shots on goal that early in the season. Even though her...

Bossy Buffet

My family and I are standing in line at a hotel in Green River, Utah, waiting for the breakfast that is included in the cost of our room. It’s just after 6 am. The four of us are bleary-eyed yet nervous because even though this buffet is free, it comes with some very...