GUEST POST by NANCY RULLO The model slipped her robe off and slid into a pose elongating her legs, torso, neck and arms. During the one-minute pose, artists moved charcoal across large sketchpads. I watched Judy’s hand translating the model onto the page in confident strokes. The thin charcoal in my hand broke in half; my sketch [...]
Pat Taub
I’m devoting this week’s “Short Takes” to events and sightings from my Memorial Day weekend in New York City. RBG Strolling in the Village I spotted this storefront hand-painted image of the wonderful RBG or Ruth Bader Ginsburg, our formidable Supreme Court Justice. She has become a national icon. Stonewall Memorial Park In [...]
Pat Taub
GUEST POST by TONI KIEF The day I turned sixty I collided with a shocking revelation. I didn’t know what I wanted to be when I grew up! I was single again, living alone and on my way to meet my women friends for vodka and cake. The thought wouldn’t stop; it kept repeating. I drove to the party, and took inventory. At eleven I wanted [...]
Pat Taub
“I hate coming home to an empty house. The silence can be deafening.” “I can go days without speaking to anyone except the clerk in the grocery store or my mail carrier.” “I rarely reach out to my friends when I’m feeling lonely because I’m too embarrassed to admit I’m lonely.” “My daughter tells me to stop feeling [...]
Pat Taub
Alabama’s Draconian Abortion Law I’m old enough to remember when abortion was illegal and when college friends traveled out of state for an abortion. In 1973 when abortions became legal, we all breathed a sigh of relief. Now decades later anti-abortion fever is in ascendency. This week Alabama’s governor, Kay Ivey signed the cruelest [...]
Pat Taub
Can you imagine a scenario where you, a vital older woman, actually liked your body instead of making it a battleground where you fret over your weight, wrinkles, and saggy boobs? What if food wasn’t the enemy and sleepless nights had their own advantages? What if you had practices for honoring your body? Body acceptance for the older [...]
Pat Taub
Mother’s Day Actions Sunday is Mother’s Day and peace and justice groups are marking it with actions to support mothers in jail and migrant mothers whose children were taken from them when they crossed the border into the US. For the third year in a row Black justice groups have organized “Black Mama’s Bail Out Day,” raising bail [...]
Pat Taub
“Out of the blue I received an email from my daughter saying she never wants to see me again.” “My son is frequently verbally abusive. I feel like I’m walking on egg shells around him, bracing myself for the next hurtful comment.” “My daughter and I always had a very loving connection until she married. Now she makes excuses [...]
Pat Taub
I get it. I’m not supposed to grow old because I live in a society that worships youth. My wrinkles, gray hair, sagging breasts, and flabby upper arms render me unacceptable. The anti-aging industry to the rescue. Up-to-the-minute plastic surgery procedures, facial fillers, beauty creams and medical supplements offer remedies that play [...]
Pat Taub
Joe Biden Strikes Out This week Joe Biden threw his hat in the 2020 presidential ring. As part of his effort to erase his troubled past he phoned Anita Hill to apologize for his unfair treatment of her during the Clarence Thomas sexual harassment hearings, which Biden chaired. Hill wasn’t having any of Biden’s half-apology, commenting [...]
Pat Taub