On Friday, I point you towards some recommended reading around the blogosphere:

1. Via The Happiness Project, check out City of Words DC, which tracks quotations around Washington, DC.

2. Who knew? Monopoly was once a socialist utopia. Shhhh….don’t tell.

3. Over at A Design So Vast, Lindsey encourages us to embrace the darkness of winter. This is my new mantra. For everything.

4. If you happen to be a Prince fan, watch this entire clip. If not, speed ahead to the last 3-4 minutes and watch how the artist turns the table on the interviewer and – in the most natural way possible – utterly disarms her. (Hat tip: My husband)

5. This poignant post over at Big Little Wolf’s Daily Plate of Crazy about a letter from a love gone by really struck a chord.

6. Finally, where would any of us be without The Oatmeal? Here the comic genius muses about what it’s like to be a creative of any sort: writer/blogger/artist/you name it. Love, love, love.

Have a great weekend!

Every Friday I point you towards some recommended reading around the blogosphere:

1. My inner geek was really fascinated by this piece by philosopher Gary Gutting on the New York Times Opinionator blog about the reliability of the social sciences.

2. I usually read The Oatmeal to laugh, but Dear God how I loved his response to an article in Forbes critiquing his recent comic on Nikola Tesla. (And yes, I had to have my 11 year-old explain who Tesla was.)

3. Over on Big Little Wolf’s Daily Plate of Crazy, check on the post on actress Jane Lynch’s commencement speech at Smith College. Wonderful!

4. I was quite taken with this short post on Surrender, Dorothy on why, as we age, we care more and more about things that last.

5. Finally, this short film by Mike Birbiglia about his “encounter” with NPR radio personality Terry Gross is, quite simply, brilliant.

Have a great weekend, everybody!

Every Wednesday I offer tips for adulthood.

Talk of divorce is in the air this week.

It all began with an article in last Sunday’s New York Times Styles section by Pamela Paul entitled How Divorce Lost Its Groove. The thrust of the article is that, at least among a sub-set of affluent, well-educated couples, divorce is not only less prevalent, but also more stigmatized.

And the blogosphere has been alight with discussion of divorce ever since.

I enjoy reading about divorce. Not because my own marriage is jeopardized (at least at the moment!). But because I have so many close friends and family members who are divorced. So I’m always heartened when people are open and honest about divorce, rather than treating it like cancer. Which is why – among other reasons – I was so pleased when Nora Ephron opened up a divorce vertical at Huffington Post.

To that end, here are five smart posts about divorce for all of us  – divorced, married, single and “to be determined”:

1. Over on Salon, Mary Elizabeth Williams endorses Paul’s main thesis, arguing that at least in her own nominally progressive, helicopterish-parenting social circle, divorce does lead to social ostracism. As she writes: “There’s great — and by that I mean terrible — irony in the way that the most supposedly enlightened and liberal of parenting enclaves can feel suffocatingly like a meeting of the Harper Valley PTA.” Williams concludes that we’d all be better off if we treated divorce as a messy reality of contemporary life, instead of as a personal achievement. And it would be better for our kids too.

2. And speaking of kids, over on the Huffington Post, recently-separated Stephanie Dolgoff (of Formerly Hot fame) talks about why, sometimes, you really do need to “put your kids second.” In the aftermath of her own separation, Dolgoff, too, was subjected to the stares and idle gossip of her close-knit neighborhood. She was aghast at how few people could actually hold back from implying that by divorcing, she had completely ruined her children’s lives. In the long run, however, she firmly believes that in securing her own happiness, she will secure her daughters’ as well.

3. Over at Slate’s XX Blog, K.J. Dell’Antonia disagrees with the premise that our attitudes towards divorce have fundamentally altered. Harkening back to her own childhood in the 1970s, she speculates that divorce was always difficult and always stigmatizing for those going through it. She encourages us to think of divorce as a phenomenon that’s still finding its groove, rather than one that’s lost it.

4. Some of the most thoughtful blogging on divorce can be found at Big Little Wolf’s Daily Plate of Crazy. Here’s an earlier post that Big Little Wolf wrote called Something Like Marriage, in which she explains how, despite being married, her husband never really “showed up.” This post goes to the heart of the sort of disillusionment with marriage that can drive one to divorce, even absent an affair.

5. Finally, to end on a positive note, I really liked this essay by Katie Brandi in the New York Times Modern Love column last year. In it, Brandi recounts her own disillusionment with marriage, and how she rose out of it – despite the tears, the disappointment and the new-born – to fashion a new, happier life for herself.

As I read these over, I realize that it might sound like I’m pro-divorce. As these essays recount, however, I don’t think anyone is pro-divorce, least of all those who go through it. But divorce is a painful reality of modern marriage and the sooner we face up to its myriad complexities – emotional and practical – the better.

Image: divorce by jcoterhals via Flickr under a Creative Commons license.

There’s a sobering article in last week’s Salon that bears reading by all mothers near and far. Titled “Regrets of a Stay-at-Home Mom,” it depicts the mindset of a recently divorced, partially-employed mother of two who — after being out of the workforce for 14 years — discovers it ain’t so easy getting back into the game when she needs a full-time job.

The author, Katy Read, only partly blames the current economic crisis for her job-hunting woes. Rather, she places most of it on her decision 14 years ago to invest first and foremost in her children (“sliding . . . skating . . . supervising art projects . . . helping them with their homework”) over and above things like securing a retirement fund or a sufficiently well-cushioned savings account.

As she writes: “I did what the experts advised: developed my skills, undertook new challenges, expanded my professional contacts. I advanced creatively if not financially, published essays in respected literary journals that often paid (cue ominous music) in copies of the magazine.” Fast forward 14 years and Read finds that “My income — freelance writing, child support, a couple of menial part-time jobs — doesn’t cover my current expenses, let alone my retirement or the kids’ tuition.”

Her conclusion? Much like Sandra Tsing Loh — who, in a much-hyped article in The Atlantic a few years back urged women not to marry lest they end up, like her, in a workable but loveless “companionate marriage” — Read does the same. She counsels new mothers to forget all that stuff they hear about having “quality time” with their kids. They should go get a job so that they don’t end up broke and bereft like her.

Read the rest of this post at www.PoliticsDaily.com…

Image: 50% Dissolution by Donna 62 via Flickr under a Creative Commons license

Every Friday I point you to some recommended reading around the blogosphere:

1. Here’s a very funny post by Bill Maher in The Huffington Post about why we need to start carding all Republicans.

2. Also in the realm of political satire, here’s a great post by my new colleague Andrew Cohen at www.PoliticsDaily.com on what would happen if the Supreme Court justices started using Twitter.

3. I was very moved by this reflection over on Big Little Wolf’s Daily Plate of Crazy about what happens when your kids grow up and travel alone.

4. Also moving is this essay by Ingrid Maitland in the New York Time’s Modern Love column about adoption. Warning: it has a surprise ending.

5. Finally, for the writers out there I wanted to plug these two fantastic resources for writers: C. Hope Clark’s Funds For Writers as well as Erika Dreifus’ Practicing Writing blog. Be sure to subscribe to their *free* newsletters, chock full of inspiration, tips and job listings.

And please do follow me on Twitter!

Every Friday, I point you towards some recommended reading around the blogosphere:

1. Many of our lives were dominated over the past week by the cloud of volcanic ash hanging over Europe. Here are some amazing photos of the volcano when it first erupted in Iceland from The Guardian.

2. People aren’t the only ones who go through life stages. So do social movements. Here’s a great walk down memory lane of Earth Day “growing up” on the blog Change Marketing. (Remember that “Crying Indian” ad? Priceless!)

3. I love to think about names and why we choose them. In that vein, here are two terrific posts from the past week on naming: one by my colleague Joann Weiner at Politics Daily talking about why women do (or do not) take their husband’s last name and one over at Big Little Wolf’s Daily Plate of Crazy talking about naming people and cities.

4. I was really touched by this blog post about what a daughter learned from her mother over at Pre-Middle Age. My favorite lesson: There are no shortcuts.

5. I’m not even remotely rural in my sensibilities but I loved this essay about finally getting what you want in life at Cold Antler Farm. (Hat tip: Sarah Fain Has Starfish Envy.)

6. My essay about identity and motherhood earlier this week on the Motherlode blog at the New York Times drew a lot of comments, some supportive and some scathing. But I felt better when I read this article – also in the New York Times – about anonymous internet bullying.

7. I also felt better because amid those many and varied comments, I met the amazing Cecilia of Only You. Read her post on why she’s a writer-blogger. One of the great things about blogging is that you make new friends. Yay for that!

And speaking of friends, please do follow me on Twitter!