With the bustle associated with Valentine’s Day we often forget that February 14 is about love. True love, that is. We also forget that it is the celebration of the martyrdom of a saint who points the way to true love. Yes, Valentinus (anglicized, Valentine) was a priest of the third century Roman empire. Heavy … Read more
My friend Carol is a writer of medical romantic fiction. This does not mean that she writes warm hearted prose about anatomical procedures; she does not pen sugary sagas about surgery or candlelight accounts of cardiac attacks. No, she writes ‘female fiction’–known in the trade as Harlequin romance. She writes about nurses who are in … Read more
Who reads the (British) Journal of Family Planning and Reproductive Health Care? A few more people this month than last, judging from the coverage given to an article in that worthy publication by British psychologist and agony aunt, Susan Quilliam. Her essay spiced up the journal’s usual menu of condoms and chlamydia with the attention-grabbing headline: “‘He … Read more
The New York Times‘ “Vows” section is usually the lightest part of the paper. The charming love stories, photos of beautiful gowns, and glimpses into happy celebrations never fail to lift the reader’s spirits. So it was with some surprise that I noticed one wedding announcement last month brought outrage in the comments section and … Read more
I haven’t picked up a Stephen King novel since I was a kid, but I enjoyed reading the horror master’s opinion of contemporary vampire fiction. “Here’s what vampires shouldn’t be: pallid detectives who drink Bloody Marys and work only at night; lovelorn southern gentlemen; anorexic teenage girls; boy-toys with big dewy eyes,” writes Stephen King … Read more
There was a man who confessed he had become a habitual consumer of Internet pornography in his early teens. With self-disgust and embarrassment, he spoke of his machinations to avoid detection by others, and how he would quickly conceal his activities when others wandered within eyesight of his computer monitor. Even by young adulthood he … Read more
Two-year-old Daniel jabbed a small, pudgy finger at my face in the wedding photo. “Mama,” he announced confidently, and then, “Papa,” as he pointed to his father. “Yes,” I told him. “That’s Mama and Papa on the day we were married.” He squinted at the photo for another moment before turning to me with an … Read more
Her gleaming grin caught my eye in the checkout aisle. There she was — Angelina Jolie. Newly pregnant, the headline told me, with her seventh child. The evidence of this latest “pregnancy” was helpfully highlighted for readers with the use of a yellow arrow marked with the words “baby bump.” There, beneath a fitted dress, … Read more