I realize I haven’t posted in a while. My beloved kitty Bookie died. He was a miracle kitty — had a heart defect, battled back from a pulmonary embolism that paralyzed his back legs, put up with us shoving medicine down his throat and never bit or scratched anyone in the process. He was a lovebug. After he threw his first clot we were told we had four to six months tops with him, and we got 13. But I’m still so sad. This past week we got a kitten, because our surviving kitty Novella really needs a friend. I’m wary. Maybe of falling in love with another cat, maybe merely of the fact that a kitten is TINY. JEEZ. (I’ve never had a kitten — I’ve only ever adopted adult cats — and the rest of the fam forcefully advocated for A BABY.) Anyhow, it is a lot of work. I’m adjusting. Novella is adjusting. I’m sure everything will be fine. Yeah. 

But hey, I still write things! Let’s discuss! I wrote about the trailer for the forthcoming movie Wonder, which is raising red flags for some advocates of people with disabilities. I wrote a paean to cheesecake and Jewishness. I wrote about neo-Nazi graffiti that appeared all over my neighborhood (and after I wrote the piece, a lovely person covered up every incidence of it with black paint, so THANK YOU, PERSON!). I wrote about the nifty artsy Noah’s Ark playground at the Skirball Cultural Center in Los Angeles, and I am grateful that my editor did not use the photo of me squatting in a child-sized hut made of corncobs. On the same trip, I wrote about an all-romance bookstore in Culver City. I adored the youthful proprietresses, and realized only after the piece was finished that I was really writing about mothers, daughters and loss. (I am slow.) I wrote about the cultural reclamation of the word “mom” (I HAVE THOUGHTS) and about a new documentary I found funny, smart, edifying and touching. 

In Mamaleh Knows Best news, I had such a fun time in New Haven! I love you, New Haven! Cambridge can SUCK IT. 

In SorryWatch news — we have been busy, what with the world being what it is, so just go over there and see what we’ve been up to. You might as well follow us on Twitter and Facebook too. (We cover a lot of apologies there that we don’t cover on the site — mostly when you know exactly what we’re gonna say but we all know we’re gonna say it anyway, Bill Maher, Kathy Griffin, talking to you.)