As I’m putting together my summer plan, which involves a house share in my favorite place in the world, Fire Island, my favorite response from my friends with kids has been the reluctance to expose me to the kids themselves. The whining. The incessant chatter. The nonsense. It makes me laugh, of course. As if I wasn’t exposed to it myself, when my child would invite her annoying friends over. Or my child herself, when going through those taxing phases. My answer to my friends has just been to smile and explain that while I appreciate their concern for psyche, I am a master at Tuning Children Out. I literally can’t hear the decibel level a child achieves when they open their mouths. It’s a learned talent, I know. But it’s not out of reach. Everyone can Tune Out Their Kids (as well as Other People’s Kids.) It’s akin to meditation, when you focus on your inner peace, your mantra, your salvation. You just shut the noise out. You go to the happy place. These words some blithe, I know, put once put into practice, you too, shall see, that You Can Tune Out Your Kids (and Other People’s Kids). And so that’s how I can happily spend the summer with my friends, even if their kids are young and tantrum-y, I won’t hear a word they utter.

Claire Dederer : “It is a culture that’s very comfortable with women as mothers, and any role beyond that, no way. And that’s because what comes next, the next stage, the stage where a woman is for herself and not giving everything away, not seeking her partner, not giving everything to her children — I think it has the potential to be the most generative, creative stage in terms of woman’s energy. She emerges from that dependence on relationships when everyone was looking at her for her utility.”

The story of Eudocia Tomas Pulido, also known as Lola.

Oh the news of Chris Cornell’s passing is just so sad.

Phone Interviews are the most insulting of them all, that the hiring manager can’t be bothered to meet you face-to-face? I hate them. But maybe there’s a way to own them.

Opera Creole. Divine.

There is an alt ending to Get Out.

What’s missing at Apple? DAYCARE.

Can college ever be free? Or rather, will it?

Potty pout.

And now have a laugh with Margaret Cho.