April 11, 2013–Boys and girls, despite what some people might tell you these days, are dramatically different creatures — and one of the most important distinctions between the sexes lies in their preferred methods of torture. In 1991, an episode of the hit show “Seinfeld” discussed an age-old tactic of torment favored by young boys: [...]
January 22, 2013–What is it like to live in a world where nothing matters? If you’ve ever watched HBO’s cult series “Girls,” you know the answer. If you’re not familiar with the show, which follows the largely depressing, sex-fueled lives of four self-centered, fresh-out-of-college Brooklyn women, rest assured: The national media are working industriously to [...]
January 14, 2013–Five years ago, on a quiet, leisurely Thursday night, my husband and I sat at the dining room table with a yellow notepad, discussing when we should start having kids. “See, here’s how it works,” he said, drawing a graph. “With a dog, you put in a medium amount of work, and you [...]
Follow @heatherwilhelm July 23, 2012–Marissa Mayer is young, blond, attractive, and six months pregnant. She’s also, as of last week, the new president and CEO of Yahoo, a Fortune 500 tech company, and—much to her chagrin, I’m guessing—the fevered subject of dozens of angst-laden feminist blog posts. As a woman, Mayer is a rarity in [...]
July 17, 2012–Last Saturday night, a wild-eyed, t-shirt clad teenager screamed at me for riding on a boat. I won’t print exactly what he said, but it was a pretty creative string of expletives. Here’s the gist: It was not fair that my family and I were on a boat in the Chicago River, cruising [...]
February 3, 2012–Americans, the saying goes, don’t like to talk about class — but they certainly enjoy reading about it. They also love to see how they stack up against their peers. One of the most notorious and snobby books on the topic, Paul Fussell’s Class: A Guide Through the American Status System, capitalizes on [...]
January 25, 2012–It doesn’t take much to these days to get labeled a “provocateur.” Back in the good old days, you had to really work to cause a sensation — or at the very least, dance on TV with a little too much pop in your pelvis. Once the ante had been upped, you had [...]
August 16, 2011 – Are Christians a bunch of delusional, sanctimonious lame-os? Penn Jillette — atheist, “Penn & Teller” Vegas showman, and author of the new book, God, No! Signs You May Already Be an Atheist and Other Magical Tales — certainly seems to think so. And he is not alone. Forget Dawkins, Hitchens, and [...]
