| If you have trouble reading this e-mail, go to: http://www.nytimes.com/indexes/2008/12/12/opinion/opiniontodayemail/index.html |
 December 12, 2008Opinion Today |
Domestic Disturbances: Judith WarnerJudith Warner is an author. She lives in Washington, D.C.  There was something about last week’s column that left me dissatisfied. I wrote about the difficulty of helping my 8-year-old daughter Emilie process disturbing news, particularly when she tends to over-focus on life’s ugliness. But what I really wanted to discuss -- via the vehicle of our obsessive replaying of the death of the trampled Wal-Mart worker Jdimytai Damour -- was emotional enmeshment. . . . Read full post » ADVERTISEMENT  Measure for Measure: Jeffrey LewisHow to Write a Song and Other Mysteries  How honest is it possible to be in songwriting? How personal is it advisable -- or even aesthetically pleasing -- to be? One of the shortcomings of much commercial music is the sense that the people performing and writing it are more concerned with making money than with being honest, and that, in most cases, the artists don’t really mean what they say. Less commercial, alternative types of music like rap, punk and indie rock have always touted honesty as a trump card. The idea is that artists making less comfortable music are actually better than their more successful counterparts -- they are “keeping it real,” holding honesty and sincerity as higher artistic ideals. But is there such a thing as being too honest, getting too personal, or keeping it too real in song lyrics? . . . Read full post » Reader Comment"There is a huge difference between spilling-your-guts honesty and using your own experiences to make truthful statements about the human condition -- statements that average people can relate to, and use, in their own lives." - Posted by hugh prestwood, Dec. 12, 6:21 a.m. Read full comment » | The Opinionator: Tobin HarshawA guide to the wide world of newspaper, magazine and Web opinion. Reaction the day after Republicans turn back a car industry bailout plan. Read full post » The BoardA blog by the editorial writers of The New York Times We had barely finished celebrating the good news that both the rate of newly diagnosed cancers and the rate of deaths from cancer have been falling in the United States in recent years, when a jarring prognosis for global cancer burdens was issued by the International Agency for Research in Cancer, part of the World Health Organization. . . . Read full post » Authors Steven Levitt and Stephen Dubner bring their blog to The Times. Read More » |
| |
Reader Comment
"Oh, Judith, how I relate! I don’t think anyone should be able to write a parenting book until their kids are all grown. You might be good at taking care of babies and charming preschoolers, but terrible at taming teenagers. I am the mother of 3 (college sophomore son, high school junior daughter and 5th grade son) and you have your work cut out for you with 2 daughters. You hear so much about helicopter parents who hover, but I’ve also seen parents who totally step out of the game at adolescence and let their kids raise themselves through their teen years. I love my daughter, but she is so much harder than my sons. . . ." - Posted by Sarah, Dec. 12, 1:30 a.m.
Read full comment »