Halloween My spirited 17 y.o. granddaughter from Oak Park, Il. dressed as the Grim Reaper for Halloween. Her costume symbolizes the concerns of so many young people, who are desperately worried about their future during these times of climate emergency. Videos from Glasgow show throngs of young climate activists cramming city blocks around [...]
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 adult daughter tells me to [...]
Pat Taub
It didn’t take much persuasion when my youngest son phoned and said, “Mother, you have a birthday on October 1st. You haven’t treated yourself in a while. What about a birthday trip to Paris?“ Jonathan offered to accompany me and be my travel guide. This is the son whose adolescence antics drove me up the wall. Maturity is a [...]
Pat Taub
A Visit from My Brother Earlier this week my brother, Curry, who’s 20 months younger than me, visited me in Portland. He’s a retired Civil Liberties lawyer who lives in Asheville with his second wife. Curry and I walked, talked and ate out a lot, while lamenting over the future our kids and grands face as climate change accelerates. [...]
Pat Taub
Texas Abortion Law Like most women across America, I have been stunned by the new Texas abortion law, which the Supremes upheld. This horrible piece of legislation makes an abortion illegal after 6 weeks– most women don’t even know they’re pregnant this early! It gets worse: any Texan who knows of a woman seeking an abortion [...]
Pat Taub
“We’ve forgotten how to talk to each other,” laments Sherry Turkle in her latest book, “Reclaiming Conversation.” Turkle lays the blame on smartphones, which have largely replaced in-person conversation, where “talk” is relegated to texts and emails. These short, scripted exchanges in cyberspace have replaced the deep connections [...]
Pat Taub
Friday the 13th Today is Friday the 13th, a date long regarded as signifying bad luck. However, this wasn’t always the case. In the Neolithic period, when many societies were goddess worshipping, Friday the 13th was sacred. It was known as “Venus Day,” because it represented the 13 lunar moon cycles and the average female has 13 [...]
Pat Taub
I recently received an email from a WOW reader, who confessed to being angry about aging: “I hate getting old. I hate the wrinkles, sleep problems and bouts of loneliness . . . I hate having aged out of the dating scene.” The reader’s complaints carry a universal ring in our ageist and sexist culture, which presents a formidable [...]
Pat Taub
GUEST POST by BARBARA BENGELS I’m a dog run junkie. There’s hardly a day that goes by when my husband and I are not at a local dog run with my daughter’s 2 ½ year old pup who lives with us. I’d like to say that this is all to benefit our Penelope—but I’d be lying. Yes, Penny looks forward to these excursions every day—to [...]
Pat Taub
Do not go gentle into that good night, Old age should burn and rave at close of day. These immortal words of Dylan Thomas are a suitable motto for Feisty Old Broads, older women who reject the stereotype of the accommodating old lady. The FOB’s are women who are fearless in their individuality. They speak truth to power, laugh a lot, have [...]
Pat Taub