OFFICIAL BLOG

Fieldnotes

Strange Fall Rites of the Manhattan Tribe

Published by Wednesday Martin
Photo by Rachel Bowie. We stand right in the street to hail cabs. Often in the bike lane. Sometimes a cyclist will high five you as they bike by, no kidding.
Photo by Rachel Bowie. We stand right in the street to hail cabs. Often in the bike lane. Sometimes a cyclist will high five you as they bike by, no kidding.

Manhattan may be the exception to the adage "Absence makes the heart grow fonder." It's hard to come back to a smelly, noisy, cramped town after a beachy, rural summer idyll. Lots of us hate it — complaining about being back in town after time away away (in the Hamptons, Martha's Vineyard or Nantucket, most often) is a Fall tradition here. But distance and absence have certainly make the city look more fascinatingly strange, exotic and foreign to me after 11 weeks at the beach (don't hate me — I worked while I was there!) Manhattan and Manhattanites, now I see you as you truly are — a tribe (or collection of tribes) with rites, rituals and ways of being and doing that truly set you apart.


Mothers Who Drink — the New Normal

Published by Wednesday Martin
Plenty of mommies drink. Some of us drink an endless “glass of wine” starting at 5 pm….
Plenty of mommies drink. Some of us drink an endless “glass of wine” starting at 5 pm….

A girlfriend with kids the same age as mine texted me the other day. "Call me so we can have a drink," she suggested. She meant, call me so we can chat on the phone while we have a glass of wine. Because it was 5:30 and because like most of the women with children we know, we're mothers who drink.


The Men Who Never Evolved — Wendy Davis's Fillibuster

Published by Wednesday Martin
Bi-pedal, semi-continuously sexually receptive female primate and keen maternal strategist Wendy Davis surrounded by high-ranking male primates
Bi-pedal, semi-continuously sexually receptive female primate and keen maternal strategist Wendy Davis surrounded by high-ranking male primates

Primatologists would take the long view of Wendy Davis's Texas filibuster.


Mommynomics 101: If Privileged Manhattan Moms are Lazy, I'm Missing Something

Published by Wednesday Martin
In the cultural imagination, wealthy Manhattan mom = Marie Antoinette
In the cultural imagination, wealthy Manhattan mom = Marie Antoinette

In a recent article for the New York Observer, Richard Kirshenbaum wrote about Upper East Side parents "outsourcing" their parenting duties — to their drivers. It's an amusing and insightful piece that follows on the heels of Tara Palmeri's New York Post piece about moms (and dads, c'mon!) who send nannies to do school volunteer work in their stead. Nannies acting as crossing guards and bringing school snack are rubbing many the wrong way.


Happy Mother's Day

Published by Wednesday Martin
photo courtesy of Katharine Moser
photo courtesy of Katharine Moser

Happy Mother's Day! This is a photo from the Church Rock archeological site in Shasta County, California, a site where the native Wintu people lived and performed various religious and cultural ceremonies. The vulva sculpture was part of a birth altar. Thanks to my  stepdaughter Katharine Moser, an archeologist in training, for this image.