The things we hate about ourselves aren't more real than things we like about ourselves.

People have been writing premature obituaries on the women's movement since its beginning.

On television, journalists now routinely appear on talk-shows-with-an-attitude where they are encouraged to say what they think about something they may not have finished thinking about.

Saving time, it seems, has a primacy that's too rarely examined.

Parents remain our touchstones, fellow travelers, even after death. They are both missing and present.

It is, I suppose, the business of grandparents to create memories and the relative of memories: traditions. We want to lodge moments, like snapshots, in the fleeting video of time.

Even if every program were educational and every advertisement bore the seal of approval of the American Dental Association, we would still have a critical problem. It's not just the programs but the act of watching television hour after hour after hour that's destructive.