A roaring fireplace, Momma’s oven-baked sugar cookies and Daddy’s reading holiday poems aloud to my siblings and me as “A Motown Christmas” played: I cannot imagine the holidays without intertwining those memories. My fondness for tradition, however, doesn’t prevent me from adding a few new tweaks and twists for my own family. For example, I… Continue reading Updating An Archive: The Easy-Bake Oven Gender Drama
Category: Pop Life
Miscellaneous topics, trends and columns
How Very White Of You: An Open Letter To Univ. of TX’s Professor Graglia
Greetings, Professor Graglia, You seem like a thoughtful and educated man and given your decades of teaching experience, including your current post as a University of Texas Law Professor, you may not have meant to diminish the performance efforts of non-white students in college settings. But what you stated in last month’s interview with BBC… Continue reading How Very White Of You: An Open Letter To Univ. of TX’s Professor Graglia
“The Kissing Sailor” Controversy: Enthusiastic Response Or Full-On Assault?
August, 1945: a sailor charges into the street, pulls a nurse into his arms and bends her backwards with a forceful kiss. The impulsive “Nurse and Sailor” embrace became an iconic American image. For decades, it personified a renewed and romantic lease on life after the brutal conflict of World War II. However, as saying… Continue reading “The Kissing Sailor” Controversy: Enthusiastic Response Or Full-On Assault?
Willow In Charge Or Freefall? The Importance of Boundaries For Kids
The wheels of fate were set into motion soon after we became engaged. When my then-fiance Calvin shared the news with his mother, he passed the receiver to me and my future mother-in-law’s first words were an enthusiastic request. “Congratulations Lorrie. You two ought to have a baby! Have a girl.” We didn’t forsee having… Continue reading Willow In Charge Or Freefall? The Importance of Boundaries For Kids
Pimp In Distress or Crazy & Cool? My Throwback Chat With Katt Williams
When hip-hop’s Three Six Mafia composed the Oscar-winning song “It’s Hard Out Here for a Pimp,” they probably didn’t use the life of comedian Katt Williams for inspiration, but they could have!