Not really. But I had a review of the wannabe contenders in yesterday’s New York Times Book Review.
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Somebody needs to make a movie of this woman’s life, STAT.
Born in poverty in Brooklyn; grew up above her family’s tchotchke shop/doll hospital on Grand Street on the Lower East Side; saved her dad’s business during WWI, when an embargo on German goods made inventory dry up, by coming up with a cheap cloth Red Cross Nurse doll (patriotic!) that she and her sisters made and sold; started her own business, The Alexander Doll Company, with a $1600 loan and a ton of moxie; built it into the third largest doll manufacturer in America; took her shopgirls to Margaret Sanger’s clinic for health care and birth control. How many high-school-educated girls named Bertha whose parents fled pogroms in Russia could wind up being called “Madame” and living in Gramercy Park? Read more in this week’s Tablet magazine column. [click to continue…]
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For my Tablet magazine column this week, I visited the Jewish Braille Institute. It was nifty.
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This week’s Tablet magazine column: Ethical childrearing-y Tax-Day discussion fodder. And a story about the day we lost $400,000.
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It is a knotty and terrible problem we parents have all struggled with: What shoes should we wear while reading bedtime stories to our children? I hope these suggestions will help other parents with this oft-experienced dilemma. I am here for you.
For the lovely Newbery-Medal-winning The One and Only Ivan
“Banana” by Kobi Levi, $1400.
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This week in Tablet magazine, I look at Jewish facial hair.
(Fassbender: Not a Jew. Hot, though.)
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I have a 10-page story on housecleaning in the April issue of Real Simple.
TEN. PAGES.
If you saw my apartment you’d be rolling on the floor (the CAT-HAIR-COVERED FLOOR) in hysterics too.
In truth, it’s a fun and gorgeously designed piece on how our ancestors cleaned, which new and old-school products work well, and what scientists and concept designers are working on for the future. I love writing for Real Simple.
Also: This story has ROBOTS.
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That was my suggested title for this week’s Tablet magazine column, about social-action and fundraising projects for Bar and Bat Mitzvah kids. I have no idea why Tablet wouldn’t go for it.
Seriously, I was blown away by the kindness and ingenuity of some of these kids and grownups, and the thoughtfulness of Rabbi Jill Jacobs of Tru’ah. I recommend her book Where Justice Dwells: A Hands-On Guide to Doing Social Justice in Your Jewish Community
An aside: I really appreciated Jacobs’s perspective on not letting kids think of themselves as the heroic white saviors of downtrodden brown people. I liked the way she reminds us, constantly, to discuss longtime inequities and people’s efforts from within a community to help others. I was reminded of my time sitting in on Columbia University admissions for a Sassy story, and my own experience doing alumni interviews for Harvard: So many essays on My Semester In Guatemala/Honduras/Costa Rica and What It Taught Me! So much lyyyyyricism about the noble savages and their rough magical education of white youth! (Cue “I am Africa” from The Book of Mormon.) (God I love that song.) Do not let your child write this essay.
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The Purim Superhero
I’ve been trying to think of other children’s books with gay and Jewish characters. [click to continue…]
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