clips

{NY Times} {Salon} {Parenting/Family Life} {LA Times} {LA Weekly} {LA Magazine} {Essays} {Inside} {Early Newspaper Work} {Miscellaneous}

Is a taste of deceit with carrots so bad for kids?

The first piece written for my new “Family Life” column for Reuters is all about kids and food and how far we as parents will go to get something un-fried, un-sweetened and halfway nutritious into the mouths of our picky little tyrants. 

Can Enthusiasm for Breastfeeding Go Too Far?

The second installment of my new Reuters column involves a celebrity pediatrician and my wife’s boobs. Response has been highly enjoyable, ranging from the dad who took the opportunity to rave about how he can bring his wife to orgasm through nursing to the New Zealand feminist blogger who can’t believe we didn’t get more worked up about our our groovy pediatrician.

Irving the Snowchicken is Coming to Town

Forget Christmakkah and Festivus. Our interfaith holiday involves a magical rooster who fills the children’s pants with presents.

A new game for recovering hyperparents: bad dad one-upsmanship

Feature on parents’ increasing willingness to come clean about their lowest moments grew out of essay about episode involving my five year old daughter, a bad case of the hiccups and a gorilla head. Story ran in highly abridged form on the Reuter wire.

The Secret to Dating

This column for the L.A. Times’ Calendar section began with an assignment to write about “what I wish I knew about dating when I was single.” I dug deep into my own humiliating record of romance and found a curious parallel with an unhealthy obsession of the moment: the Australian self-help DVD “The Secret.”

Pop’s Secretive Svengali, Mutt Lange

Investigative profile of pop genius Mutt Lange, a press-shy knob-twiddler behind chart-toppers as diverse as AC/DC, Tina Turner, the Backstreet Boys and Shania Twain. Good training for my run-in a few years later with another evasive celebrity, Mel Gibson.

‘Alternadad’ review

Neal Pollack is a fellow Angeleno with a distaste for Barney and an obsessive desire for his kids to appreciate good rock and roll. Unsurprisingly, I liked his book a lot.

This Summer, One Formula Fits All

A reported essay for Sunday Arts & Leisure on how big summer Hollywood movies are now created and marketed to both adults and children. These movies constitute a new kid-adult hybrid that operates on multiple levels, weaving adult themes into kid movies and making the yearning for childhood an explicit theme of adult-targeted films. 

Four square for grownups?

Written in advance of publication of Rejuvenile (and originally comissioned by GQ magazine), this participatory feature was a ton of fun to report; what if, I wondered, I took a break from my desk-bound theorizing and actually went out and competed against the most dedicated adult players of kidgames like kickball, rock paper scissors, tag, minigolf and a “watergun assassination tournament.”

A Big Goy Tackles the Whole Megillah

My pal the righteous Jewess Jill Soloway asked me to write and perform a wee monologue for a special event at Temple Israel of Hollywood, where my kids go to school. It was terrifying and fun to get up and lay out a little Torah interpretation, shaggutz-style…

Remembering Betty

My grandmother Betty Lane was a teacher, artist and inspiring tho crotchety character who lived for most of her life in Cape Cod, Massachusetts. I wrote this short essay for a 1997 retrospective of her work hosted by the Cape Cod Museum of Fine Arts.

Arianna Huffington, candidate’s wife

The Arianna Huffington profiled here in 1994 bears little resemblance to the progressive doyenne she’s become. I’m just sorry I didn’t question her a little more aggressively about her billionaire husband, who in short order lost his Senate bid, publicly revealed his homosexuality and split with his remarkable wife.

Television Without Pity

Front page Sunday Arts & Leisure feature on the smuttiness of television writers’ rooms. Great fun to report and blast to write, coming as it did amidst the slog of writing book…

I Don’t Want to Grow Up

Feature for the Sunday Style section of the NY Times about “rejuveniles,” adults dedicated to indulging their inner child. From adult readers of Harry Potter to hipsters in Converse sneakers and Sesame Street T-shirts, a whole new breed of grown up is redefining maturity.

Is the Pope Catholic… Enough?

Feature for New York Times Magazine about Mel Gibson and his connection to an ultraconservative Catholic splinter group.

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