by Deborah Quinn | Apr 22, 2016 | aging, Feminism, pop culture, sex
I read Alice Walker’s novel The Color Purple when I was about fourteen, probably too young to understand its full complexity. All I understood was that the world conspired against Celie–and at fourteen, that’s sort of how the world felt to me, too....
by Deborah Quinn | Mar 25, 2014 | Books, family, Kids, marriage, Parenting, pop culture, ranting
…and when did “parenting” become a verb, anyway? Time was, back in the day, a parent was a noun, and what you did was “raise” kids or “try not to drown” kids or “don’t lose the kids in the mall.” But those...
by Deborah Quinn | Nov 25, 2013 | Abu Dhabi, family, growing up, Kids, NaBloPoMo, Parenting, pop culture
For a long time, when my kids were little, I refused to outsource the birthday party: I made a cake, invited the kids over, maybe used the “community space” in our building for games of some kind or another. The year that Liam turned four, when Caleb was...
by Deborah Quinn | Nov 8, 2013 | Abu Dhabi, aging, exercise, health, NaBloPoMo, pop culture
I have a Very Big Birthday coming up in two months. REALLY BIG. As if to celebrate that fact, my body has started to disintegrate. I have this twingey thing in my knee, and then there’s that little hitch in my hip, and my neck sounds like there are cornflakes...
by Deborah Quinn | Nov 6, 2013 | family, growing up, Kids, NaBloPoMo, Parenting, pop culture
So Liam has been walking around the last few days humming and singing “here comes the sun,” which I think of as one of the all-time great songs. I say to him, “wow, I love that song; I didn’t know you liked The Beatles.” He looks at me,...
by Deborah Quinn | Aug 8, 2013 | Books, me my own personal self, pop culture, Products, reading, writing
If you’re a woman-type person, then I would imagine at some point in your life, you’ve been to the ladies room, aka the female toilet, aka the powder room. (Does anyone still use powder anymore?) And I would imagine that in that powder room, you’ve...