It’s May 1, people. Yes, May Day. But, if you have a child who applied to college this year, today is significant for another reason. It’s Decision Day. Deposit Day. Damn But They’re Really Leaving Home Day. I thought we were going to have to wait until 11:59 tonight...
Just a short while ago my 17-year-old daughter left to go to Greenwich Village for a Princess Valentine’s Day party with a group of friends, fellow seniors from her high school. The rule was to wear a dress in pink or purple—later stretched to allow red—and bring a...
Yesterday, I cooked Thanksgiving dinner with my son, daughter-in-law, daughter-in-law-to-be, and daughter, with a slight assist from my granddaughter-to-be (a five-year-old who’s a whiz at snapping green beans in half). Not too many cooks, but we had to take numbers...
Today I am wearing three Rainbow Loom bracelets made out of rubber bands. That wouldn’t be a surprising statement coming from an eight-year-old girl or even the mother of an eight-year-old girl. But my daughter is 17. She found out about the Rainbow Loom while she was...
A teacher at my daughter’s high school once asked her what she did to relax— and she answered, “Babysit.” She loves to babysit. She loves kids. She’s really good with them, too. She’s the one who can make the shy kids comfortable, get them to talk. The one who got a...
Despite the fact that my name is Wing, I am not a frequent flyer. I travel by plane maybe three or four times a year for vacation or to visit my son and his family in Chicago. Maybe I'd take planes more often if I, like so many others, didn't hate the experience of...
Beanies We Hardly Knew Ye This morning my older son’s fiancee posted a picture of him walking her five-year-old daughter to her first day of kindergarten at a Chicago public school. (While the little girl is not officially his daughter, he considers her to be so and...
A few years ago I attended an event at Lincoln Center. At one point I went to use the bathroom, and chose the stall designated for the handicapped. I was greatly amused to see that the flush was a foot-activated pedal. Not a major incident, but I thought about this...
So I’m reading the New York Times book review today and guess what? Natasha Farrant’s published a middle grade novel called After Iris about a girl whose twin sister has died. Almost the same title, same subject matter as After Isaac, my young adult book. But I’m not...
My daughter, a junior in high school, my husband and I spent most of her spring vacation visiting colleges. We got to a mere 10; we know a family that visited 13 schools, and I'm sure there are others that would scoff at our puny efforts. Not that we're finished...
The other night I went with my daughter to hear Tim Gunn in conversation with Bud Mishkin. A convergence of menschen. Tim is delightful, but also intimidating. After carefully choosing an outfit to wear in the presence of the High Priest, I realized to my horror that...
Oh those, bad, bad American teachers. Everything’s their fault. What fools we were to trust them to instruct our parents, ourselves, our children. What a scam they’ve been running for decades! Thank goodness we have politicians wise enough to want to put an end to...
Recently, I’ve seen several productions that deal with disability. Coincidentally, two of them—the TV show Switched at Birth and the play Tribes, center on deafness. A third, More of Our Parts, a series of short plays recently performed in NYC, included two about...
In Girl Scouts we used to sing:"Make new friends but keep the old, one is silver and the other gold." (Yes, I was a Girl Scout. I fondly remember my "Flying Up" ceremony in which we went from Brownies to Scouts. We performed a play: I was cast in the role of a lake,...
Happy to announce the passage of the H.Res. 683 by the United States House of Representatives. Introduced by Congresswoman Judy Chu (CA-32), the resolution is an acknowledgement and regret for the Chinese Exclusion Act of 1882. Full coverage of the House proceedings...