I was doing some research (i.e. "avoiding work/killing time online") when I found an interesting piece on Quora, now a content partner with Slate. It posits the hypothetical question, "what would happen if oxygen were to disappear for five seconds?" The respondent, a self-described science junkie named Andrew...

Last week, the New York Times wrote about a study by researchers from Seattle Children's Research Institute and the University of Washington about the effects of TV on preschool children. The results indicate that curtailing kids' consumption of adult shows and giving them age-appropriate fare leads to small...

I have mixed feelings about the presidential election last month in South Korea. Like other Asian female politicians before her (Benazir Bhutto, Corazon Aquino, Indira Gandhi), Park Geun-Hye comes to power with the hefty advantage of legacy, one-handed to her by a male relative. Clearly, a potent family...

Do you give books for the holidays?

When I was young, I was honestly surprised to find out that not everyone did. Admittedly, I came from a family that liked to read. But even taking that into account, I just couldn't believe there were people who didn't seem to...

Is plot dead?

I had a recent argument with a playwriting student who thought it was. It wasn't just plot that was dead. She told me that the whole concept of character-driven narrative structure in dramatic writing, the so-called "well-made story", was out-of-date, bourgeois and boring.

Actually, to say we...

Last week, researchers at the University of Tennessee, Knoxville announced that they had completed a three-year study on children and reading. The study was based on the observation that students who don't read during the summer show distinct disadvantages compared to those who do. Summer vacation is, after...

It's July the 4th and I'm feeling an odd nostalgia that I can't quite pinpoint. Is it the smell of barbecue improbably wafting up to my sixth-floor Manhattan apartment? Or is it the recent story of the Russian spies?

Back when I was young, impressionable and hopelessly addicted to...

When I was younger, I remember reading a snarky fashion admonition that you shouldn't wear a retro trend if you were old enough to have worn it the first time around. Well, it looks like it might be time to reconsider that piece of sartorial wisdom; old fashions from across...

The movie Kick-Ass, based on the comic book of the same name, is ostensibly about a nerdy teenage boy who decides to take a stand against evil by trying to become a superhero. But the character who steals the show is purple-wigged and foul-mouthed vigilante, Hit Girl. Played by 13-year...

Yesterday, Kotex launched their new femcare product line, U by Kotex, and from all the media hoopla, you'd think they invented a working jet pack.

I recently co-wrote a book on the cultural story of menstruation and to my admittedly jaundiced eye, the U by Kotex products...

What's with those guys at Apple?

After months of feverish speculation, the kind of build-up that invariably leads to disappointment and a crushing let-down (remember the Segway?), Apple finally unveiled their new, much-ballyhooed touch-screen device ... and it's called the "iPad."

The sonic boom you just heard was the...

One out of every ten school-age girls in today's sub-Sarahan Africa routinely skips school about 50 days a year. Others drop out of school altogether. And the reason why is both so basic and unbelievable in this day and age, it boggles the mind. It's because they're menstruating.

This isn't...

I just read a review of what sounds like a fascinating new book by film historian David Thomson, called The Moment of Psycho: How Alfred Hitchcock Taught America to Love Murder. Thomson explores the far-reaching cinematic influence of this seminal film, a legacy that he argues lingers on...

Years ago, I spoke with a retired advertising executive of the Mad Men school, who confided that the key to a good pitch lay in the skillful manipulation of two emotions: fear and desire. Having just co-written a book on the cultural story of menstruation, I know that this...

In this week's New York Times, Andrew Sullivan reported on the highly disturbing fact that in the past five years, more than a fifth of the country's 54,700 water treatment systems have violated major provisions of the Safe Drinking Water Act, with no follow-up fines or punishment by either...

I wrote a book on menstruation that came out this month, and funnily enough, Serena Williams has been much on my mind. This isn't because she's the latest spokesperson for Tampax (one of the few celebrities brave enough to, errr, plug a plug); I was actually mulling over the fact...

When I was a teenager, I was a candy striper at my local hospital. This was admittedly not from a selfless desire to help others, but was a desperate attempt to bulk up my nonexistent extracurricular resume. That being said, I did learn useful things, such as how to push...

A friend of mine who works in an office of only women confessed she still hides her tampon in her sleeve on her way to the bathroom. "You're embarrassed someone will know you're menstruating?" I asked, incredulous. "But they're all female!" She laughed, self-consciously. "Yeah, I know," she agreed, "it's...