Between Prepare and Remember

Me (to my son) holding up a hanger and caressing a soft light blue blouse and skirt hanging on it: Look at this. I wore this at your baptism, and I can’t decide if I should keep it. My son to me: Do you still wear it? Me: That’s not the point. My son: Does… Read More

Between Leave and Left

Here is something I wrote in 2016 and may be relevant today, given current events, and leaves. And leaf blowers. There are some who say it’s best to leave alone the menacing piles of orange leaves that fall into our yards from the massive old maple trees that dot our lovely neighborhoods, because, as we… Read More

Between Raw and Numbers

I offer this post with apologies to mathematicians, gardeners, people who are picky about metaphors and logic, and M&M fans. And spoiler alert, this is really about Black Lives Matter. One of my favorite concepts in any kind of social science research project, or even in home dilemmas, is “raw numbers v. proportions within categories.”… Read More

Between Game of Thrones Season 1 and Season 8, Watched Between May 1 and May 16, 2019

I am a Game of Thrones novice. By shirking some responsibilities and staying up late, I found 75 hours over the last sixteen days to watch the entire series. On Sunday, May 19, I am heading out of the country for a few weeks for work (to Denmark, where I hope to run into Jaime… Read More

Between 1994 and 2019 Public Sociology

For a plan-ahead fairly-linear-path person, my path surrounding public sociology has been a lovely winding way, evidenced by the dozens of steps outlined below. And it appears as if the steps have been more akin to the mathematical enigma Penrose Stairs. You know – the steps represented in the M.C. Escher lithograph “Ascending and Descending.”… Read More

Between Journalism and Sociology

I spend more time than the average bear pondering the relationship between stories and data. Between the reporting of timely events and the time-taking required to report research findings that capture large patterns and trends. Between protecting the integrity of a news story by sharing identities of those involved and protecting the confidentiality of those… Read More

Between Home and History

My husband and I bought the house of a former Whitman professor eighteen years ago. The professor’s name was Robert Whitner, and I am grateful that I had the chance to get to know his widow Lola Whitner before she moved to the west side of Washington state in 2000. Lola had been a long-time… Read More

Between Furniture and Stored

I have a love-love relationship with furniture stores and how they showcase imagined and real family experiences. I wrote a book that includes more than your average number of references to furniture, and for good reason, given my devotion to writing about how home objects tell stories about family life that we often don’t notice.… Read More

Between Middle and Schooled

Middle school is a time of life when littler kids look up to you and bigger adults look down on you, until you grow taller, in which case the looking down is not related to height anymore. We are in the midst of sometimes public events involving the young people in our lives that make… Read More