This is your dividing line, by the way, between child and nonchild - when the first trouble happens that Mama can't fix.

As millions of women have done before me, I pulled domesticity over my head like a blanket and found I was still cold.

Like a chastity belt, the package tour keeps you out of mischief but a bit restive for wondering what you missed.

It is always a taut moment in a foreign country waiting to see if your English-speaking guide speaks English.

I recently adopted for my own a good motto I saw somewhere, on a barroom mirror or possibly a washroom wall: 'The time you enjoyed wasting wasn't wasted.' I think I'll have that printed some day on a T-shirt or the bedroom ceiling.

... parents embarrass their children probably more than the other way around. I don't know why we should blush so hard for our parents -- we didn't rear them -- and yet we do.

many people choose, early on, their own truths from the large smorgasbord available. And once they've chosen them, for good reason or no reason, they then proceed rather selectively, wisely gathering whatever will bolster them or at least carry out the color scheme.