In fifth grade, in line for gym, Patty Joyce urged me to try it, just try it. She held her thumb and forefinger right in front of my face. Thin strands of what looked like cotton candy connected them. “It’s cotton candy,” she said. “Try it.” I knew there was no way she could possibly […]
Jennifer Loviglio
Posted inArts & Entertainment
Original prints by American greats
This Friday and Saturday, in conjunction with the exhibit The Art of the Print at Rochester Contemporary, master printer Bill Goldston of Universal Limited Art Editions will show and discuss original prints by contemporary artists like Jasper Johns, Elizabeth Murray, Robert Rauschenberg, Lisa Yuskavage, James Rosenquist, and others. The discussion and exhibition are presented by […]
Posted inNews & Opinion
The XX Files
Like a missionary in a land of heathens, my friend is trying to save the souls of my children. To save them, specifically, from me. She thinks I’m not letting them do enough “normal” kid stuff. When the family saw a silent film at the Dryden Theatre despite the kids’ pleas to see SpongeBob SquarePants, […]
Posted inNews & Opinion
New battleground for human rights: the bathroom
For Joey, a day at the amusement park is fraught with tension. But then, every day has had its share of difficulties since Joey, born female, started dressing like the boy he feels he is. “I look like a boy, I consider myself a boy,” the 23-year-old SUNY Brockport undergrad says. But because he has […]
Posted inNews & Opinion
XX files
Sign language has always been a means to an end for me. The first time I learned it I was 10, and I used it to advance my goal of total domination of my little brother. One March morning I woke up with laryngitis. At the time I had no idea it would last a […]
Posted inNews & Opinion
Breasts, guys, and videotape
The boys huddle in groups, slouching in their hooded sweatshirts and Carhartt jackets, hands jammed into their jeans pockets. When pressed they’ll admit why they came out this snowy Saturday night. “I’m here to see tits,” Frank from Dansville says when I sit next to him at the bar at Water Street Music Hall. He […]
Posted inNews & Opinion
Xx Files
It’s tempting to gloss over the news because, well, it’s depressing. And hard to follow. All that policy stuff. All those numbers. As a woman, I have a brain which — any Harvard president will tell you — can barely recall my own phone number, never mind conceive of all those facts and figures. The […]
Posted inNews & Opinion
The XX Files
The woman on the line sounded liked she was in her late 50s. She seemed nice, maybe a little tired. I’d later learn why. She said she was conducting a poll about health care for New York State. I know people are chosen at random for polls. But it doesn’t feel random. Especially since […]
Posted inNews & Opinion
The XX Files
I’m way above the fray up here in this SUV. I’m head and shoulders above you and your car and I like the view. You can’t mess with me up here. You can’t get at my children. What, kids? You felt a bump? That was probably some little car down there, or maybe a pedestrian. […]
Posted inNews & Opinion
The XX files
Since scientists discovered extra sleep results in weight loss, I’ve been going to bed earlier and staying there longer, pillow over my head, trying to get a bit more shut-eye. What this really means is that instead of sleeping I’m spending hours in bed wide awake, thinking. I think about how odd it is that […]
Posted inNews & Opinion
The XX Files
I grew up in a list family. My mother wrote her numbered lists carefully on a journalist’s pad, a True smoldering in the ashtray. My father scribbled his lists everywhere — on napkins, torn legal paper, oversized graph pads. No task was too large or too small. He’d write: “Wake up. Meditate. Eat breakfast. Read […]
Posted inNews & Opinion
The XX Files
There are few thrills as great as the one you get the first time you steal and get away with it. When I was in junior high, roughly my older son’s age, I shoplifted some Necco Wafers from the little market near my school. I just slid the cylinder of colored disks into my mitten, […]
