In the 'Mad Men' era, the archetypal dad came home; put down his briefcase; received pipe, Manhattan, roast beef, potatoes, key-lime pie; and was - apparently - content. Sandra Tsing Loh More Quotes by Sandra Tsing Loh More Quotes From Sandra Tsing Loh All autobiography is fiction. Sandra Tsing Loh autobiography crafts fiction Parental anxieties: A timeline. Pre-1800s: Potato famine, death of entire villages. 1900s: Trying to keep dad's job through depression so entire family does not starve or have to sell off children to agribusiness. 2000: Infringement of Parenthood on sense of Personhood. Sandra Tsing Loh dad jobs children Panic is efficient. Panic is effective. Panic is the way I get things done! Panic attacks are my booster rockets! Sandra Tsing Loh panic-attacks anxiety done It's not racism per se but the tyranny of normalcy - no: the tyranny of attractive normalcy. Which leads to loveable white models who are supposed to be playing ordinary, adorably flawed professionals just like you and me with their brilliant minority friends (with vastly less camera time) who are surgeons. But it's not just ethnicity. That narrow vision also extends to, say, things like women leads. Women leads have to be good-hearted and nice, with a Slutty Best Friend. The main character can't be slutty. Because that's not attractively normal etc Sandra Tsing Loh ethnicity nice character here are the top three global resources getting scarcer in the twenty-first century: ozone layer, rain forest, people eager to read the fiction of others. That's right, folks. For the first time in I believe written history, there are far more fiction writers on earth than fiction readers. Sandra Tsing Loh reading rain book When faced with writer's block, lower your standards and keep going. Sandra Tsing Loh keep-going standards block Recently it was pointed out to me - in a kind of hurtful way, to be honest - that people in Los Angeles are aurally challenged. That is, at social events, we simply do not listen to others. We do not ask them questions about themselves, we do not nod attentively when they speak; really, if we were to examine ourselves, we would realize that we simply have no interest in others at all. Sandra Tsing Loh hurtful people way living in Los Angeles was like being an extra in a movie that was starring other people entirely. Sandra Tsing Loh los-angeles extras people Los Angeles is the nation's cultural scapegoat. Sandra Tsing Loh scapegoat los-angeles nations Nowadays, it is possible to perform various forms of Low-Impact listening via the telephone. The advent of technological advances such as computer games and online services (like ones that let you check stocks) have enabled Low-Impact listeners to endure family phone calls much longer than in the past. Dangers include mouse clicks, heavy typing, or a sudden loud buzzer that goes off when you have finished Boggle. Sandra Tsing Loh impact games past I am stricken with the peculiar curse of being a 21st-century woman who makes more than the man she's living with - first with a husband for 13 years and now with a new partner. Sandra Tsing Loh partner woman i-am man You go into the book store, there's the cut-out of Dr. Phil, and then the dreaded women's health section where every book, instead of the menopause book with the fanged Medusa head on the cover that might be more pertinent, you always see a flower and a poppy and a daisy and a stethoscope. Sandra Tsing Loh you women health flower The literature of menopause is the saddest, the most awful, and the most medical of all genres. You're sleepless, you're anxious, you're fat, you're depressed - and the advice is always the same: take more walks, eat some kale, and drink lots of water. It didn't help. Sandra Tsing Loh fat you medical water If I was going to pretend to be the supermom next door, it would've been counterfeit and a lie. I figured I had to write something out of a new place. Sandra Tsing Loh door lie new place There's an image that some of us have of Jackie Onassis, stepping out in the rain, and Maurice Tempelsman is holding her umbrella. We want that man. We want the man to be the concierge and the masseur and the travel booker. Sandra Tsing Loh man want rain travel It is during fertility that a female loses herself and enters that cloud overly rich in estrogen. Sandra Tsing Loh herself cloud fertility rich In the end, the real wisdom of menopause may be in questioning how fun or even sane this chore wheel called modern life actually is. Sandra Tsing Loh end wisdom fun life Almost 50 years old now, some 30 years after graduation, I look at my Caltech classmates and conclude that math whizzes do not take over the world. Sandra Tsing Loh look classmates graduation world A deep river of must-have school mania runs through the chattering classes. There is, of course, the parental adrenaline rush at suburban cocktail parties that comes from announcing one's son or daughter as an Ivy Leaguer. Sandra Tsing Loh river daughter school son Things need shaking up when American women feel endangered even as Yosemite bears lumber around belching, their eyes glazed with surfeit, their pelts covered in Oreo crumbs. Sandra Tsing Loh eyes need feel women
