The New York Times gave me permission to be funny and write about what it is to be a woman and a mother who isn't quite up to the challenge.

After four years in New York, this young woman still finds it offensive when someone flashes the 'OK' sign. She knows that it means 'OK' here, but it is still disconcerting to her -- she is translating body language using her understanding of what that particular gesture means.

Violet: You always said I could grow up to be anything.
Mr. Sanford: I never said "songwriter in New York.

There are too many opportunities in New York. We can't live too far away.

Back then, my air fare on Eastern Airlines to fly from Florida to where Marge was stationed in New York was $16. It was the most important flight I ever made.

I was looking in the back of The New York Times for ads for homes in New Hampshire, and there weren't any, ... but there was this scrunched-up photograph of a supposedly Palladian villa outside of Venice.