Car seats This will not be news to anyone who has had a baby in the U.S.: niche industries have sprouted up for every possible aspect of childrearing.
Adventures in email etiquette People I work with know I love email. Unless forced to do otherwise, I prefer corresponding via email. Its quick, I can write it any time I want, and if there is an unpleasant subject involved, I can formulate my response strategically
Shower faux pas On a chilly, breezy Sunday not long ago, I found myself standing in a stranger's well-appointed living room, frantically scribbling stick figures on a whiteboard while a dozen women yelled at me.
Food trends In the last several years, I have found myself becoming more interested in the sustainability, healthfulness and sources of my food.
Musical disenchantment II My husband and I don't often do interesting things. We'll go out to dinner once in a while. Sometimes we'll get a hike in, or catch a movie, but such occasions are few and far between.
Hypochondria As a fearful hypochondriac, I appreciate kind physicians who err on the side of over-explaining procedures.
Allergies My sister was born with a variety of severe allergies. As a baby, she was allergic to all dairy, eggs, oranges, nuts, and chicken. In one of my earliest memories, my parents are holding her arms and torso down on the floor as she screams; Im hold..
Holiday reading Last month, I went on a beach vacation. I am a compulsively light packer. Before my daughter was born, I was known to take a single purse on a two-week getaway. When I went away to college, I arrived with a backpack and a suitcase, and was shocked ..
Author-translator partnership Ive been hard at work on translating a historical novel by Lee Jung-myung (English title: The Investigation) thats due to be submitted to the publisher in late January. Its a long, dense novel; the original was published in two volumes. Usuall..
Elusive sleep I read somewhere once that one shouldnt refer to ones child in negative terms. Instead, a parent should focus on the positive side. A complaining child isnt demanding, he knows what he wants, and an ill-behaved child isnt out of cont..
Perplexed by Halloween Although I had an unconventional upbringing, moving from one continent to another, Ive now lived in the U.S. for over a decade straight. I go about my daily life without thinking much about my foreigner status, or really understanding how deep..
The mnemonic power of food I know its a cliche to discuss memories linked to food, but I am a fourth generation food-obsessed member of my family. Food is all we think or talk about. As we eat breakfast, we discuss what were going to eat for the next five meals. Food is ..
Importance of research As a history-French studies double major, I wrote an honors thesis during my senior year of college. I took on a fairly ambitious topic, one that required perusal of a variety of primary sources in both English and French. In addition to historical..
Choosing translations When people find out Im a translator, one of the first questions they ask is how I choose the books I decide to translate.
Independent offspring Family lore has it that I have always been very independent. As a toddler, I refused to hold anyones hand when crossing the street. So my dad had to be creative: he convinced me to hold onto his belt loops instead. Thankfully, I wasnt an impuls..
On email addiction and the finely sliced hour I love email. I was an early adopter of it, both in the sense that I began emailing back when AOL reigned supreme in the dial-up world, and in that I started when I was in my early teens, when most kids my age just picked up the phone. Email appeal..
Fan management Ive never been one of those people who were accosted by strangers. I assume a blank stare and a closed-off expression when I go out, perfected over many years of living in large cities. In fact, when I was living in New York, nobody would ever st..
