A Random Assortment

~ I imagine that this is why a main recommendation for getting through the whole first stage of labor is "ritual"--I forget the other "R's" now. But I do remember standing in a door frame and having Francisco apply counterpressure every time a contraction was coming over our at least 18 hours of stage 1 labor. (For the record, it's a piece about superstitions in sports, not about childbirth.)

~ "Two Sisters; Two Views of Gay Marriage" is an admirable piece by an old professor of mine. It is characterized by civility; both sides could learn a lot from this.

~ I've never cared much for Elizabeth Taylor, but A View of the Harbour might be worth reading. This is from her letters:

I never can get over this—it is as bitter as gall—that I have got to choose. I know it is wrong that I have to. … I don’t think anything enrages me as much as seeing in famous men’s autobiographies photographs of their studies, libraries, quiet places where they work. Then I think of Harriet Beecher Stowe with the yelling baby in one arm & a pen in the other hand. What happened to that baby? How did it fare?

~ I also want to read all of these books:

AS AN INSTITUTION, the family is in the curious position of being regarded as both crucial to human survival and inimical to human freedom.