Magnificent Octopus

I'm familiar with Michael Rosen's work by reputation — We're Going on a Bear Hunt is considered a children's classic — ev...

Science fact or science fiction ? Is it better to suffer a caffeine withdrawal headache or nausea (from drinking the coffee to quash the ...

Salon looks at the Disney Princess brand. "Well, that's the magic of Disney: It's addictive. It's like crack for 5-year...

What do the Little Mermaid, Little Red Riding Hood, Babar, and Tintin have in common? As familiar to Americans as childhood itself, these ch...

Mara and Dann : An Adventure , by Doris Lessing . (Read a very short excerpt .) I found myself thinking about Mara often between readi...

Bridget Jones galore .

Birthday celebrations for Helena and myself were boisterous and lazy, respectively. As it should be. Helena on her second birthday.  ...

Today is World Toilet Day ! " The world deserves better toilets. " Flush accordingly. And this kicks off our birthday ex...

I was away from the Internet for the U.S. election, and though initially relieved to not be part of any virtual frenzy over the results, it ...

When I picked up Helena yesterday, we decided to hang out, go for coffee, kill time, wait for J-F so we could all go home together. Lucki...

I'm seriously upset over the change to instant hot chocolate pouches. Really. It now requires scissors to open them. How on Earth am I s...

Wave to the camera. 

The winners of the 2004 Governor General's Literary Awards for children's literature have been announced : "It’s important ...

"As democracy is perfected, the office of president represents, more and more closely, the inner soul of the people. On some great and ...

Bugs as precise medical terminology: 1. Helena's "bug," fever, emergency hospital visit, and recovery that delayed our tri...

It doesn't take much to fall out of the practice of full-time mothering. I'm OK with the I-feel-crummy-and-I-just-want-to-hang-out-o...

Hah! Fooled you, didn't I? You thought I was long gone... The daycare called yesterday afternoon — Helena was running a fever of 103....

Waiting for laundry to dry. Why is it taking so long? And why am I so hungry? Helena was up most of the night. Teething? Hungry? As anxio...

It's not so hard to spend more on books than on food : There are at least 700 books in my English department office. There are anothe...

I'm a basketcase! There are a million things to do before this time tomorrow. Thankfully, work is no longer one of them, though there...