Roses Are Red, and So Is the Blood of the Martyrs

Like a lot of Christian holidays, Valentine’s Day was likely a co-opting of a pagan holiday, this one called Lupercalia. How pagan was Lupercalia? It was led by “brothers of the wolves”, who sacrificed not just goats, but also a dog. Then the priests, gathered on the Palatine Hill in Rome–where Romulus and Remus were …

Put It Down for the Town

We had a massive two-part, two-dozen toddler blowout birthday for Dalia’s fourth birthday yesterday: her classmates in the morning, our friends in the afternoon. There was beer and cupcakes from early on, all day long. Jetlagged, sleep-deprived, child-overdosed, proud of my girl, and exhausted beyond compare, I find that my defenses are shot. So I …

Up in the Air: Parenting on United Flight 852

Here’s a post I’m doing just because I can, dammit, from seat 18D on United Flight 852 from SFO to JFK. I have a great deal of ambivalence about wireless Internet entering the cabin. Mainly because I know how annoying and annoyed I can be in the presence of the Interwebs. Sure enough, the first …