Once again I have been remiss in updating this site but since time has no meaning anymore, who really cares? 

I have, of course, been writing things. I wrote about my INTENSE MISGIVINGS about Jennifer Grey’s just-announced Dirty Dancing sequel, which I expect will not do justice to the pointed lessons about social justice work, Jewishness, abortion rights activism, and class consciousness that are important aspects of the original film. Speaking of abortion, I wrote a piece about a lovely San Francisco-area “memory garden” for folks mourning miscarriages, neonatal loss, infertility and abortion. Reporting it was quite moving to me, and not just because it was the last trip I took before the pandemic walls closed in. Tablet re-upped a piece I did a few years back explaining Labor Day to kids and talking about it with teenagers.

I recently also did a piece about why the right is obsessed with the term “cancel culture.” (I’d argue this is true of some — not all — of my own colleagues at Tablet.) And as we gear up for school starting again, I did a roundup of (mostly recent) picture books about kids coping with anxiety and (mostly Jewish) middle-grade novels addressing the same topic. My own kid is sort of adrift; we still have no idea exactly when school is starting or how much of it will take place in the (ancient and overcrowded) building and how much will be purely Zoom. (Sorry, I meant Google. Apparently Zoom is too easily hacked, according to the Department of Education, which surely only coincidentally has deals with Google. Google Groups/Google Meet/Google for Education trigger huge privacy concerns, if not, y’know, porn. Also, “remote learning” in general is agonizing. There is no winning. Wear your masks, people. 

Here is a soothing photo of my cat sleeping on challah.