Anne Wilmoth

Great Expectations: A Father's Diary

admin — Sun, 19 Apr 2009 23:48:00 +0000

Memoirs about preparing for the birth of a first child are easily located on library shelves. What aren’t so common, however, are those books addressing the particular experience of preparing for a second child. A second pregnancy is at once sobering and blissful—you know the rough waters that loom ahead, but press on toward the joy that’s also in store—and this paradoxical tone is reflected throughout Dan Roche’s beautifully-written nine-month diary of his wife’s pregnancy. As his wife says of their first child’s infancy, “I felt like I was making it up as I went along. I was off-balance. I guess now I want a chance to bring my attention more to taking care of a baby without feeling panicked about it. I want a do-over.”

Roche writes honestly and insightfully in this slim volume of his hope and apprehension over this “do-over”: the challenges of being an older father (he’s forty-five); the anxious possibility of having a son (will he be one of those little boys who, rather than speaking, will “act everything out physically?”); and the fulfillment parenting his five-year-old daughter has given him. He wonders how his love for the new baby could possibly match that—where will it come from, and will it feel like a threat to the existing love for his wife and daughter?

Roche not only reflects eloquently on birth, he is forced to confront death as well, with the sudden passing of his mother-in-law and the slow and painful demise of a beloved pet. Dealing with this subject, he’s thoughtful, yet acknowledges his ultimate powerlessness; it’s the same way he addresses the gender question. Roche struggles with his initial aversion to having a son: it will be so hard to raise a boy “ruled by empathy rather than ego,” he laments, and girls, anyway, are “new and interesting” to him. He talks himself through this internal struggle with humor and pragmatism.

Parents will recognize themselves in Roche and empathize with him, feeling all over again the emotions swirling around an impending birth. But this book doesn’t just speak to parents; anyone interested in relationships, the universal themes of love and death, or the joys of childhood can find something of value here.

Written by: Anne Wilmoth, April 19th 2009

Ecocrafts Gorgeous Gifts

admin — Mon, 25 Jun 2007 11:42:00 +0000

By Rebecca Craig

Kingfisher

Every kid has, at one time or another, turned garbage into art. Personally, I was obsessed with my cardboard-box dollhouse, which prominently featured a sofa made from a kitchen sponge. I was the only eight-year-old I knew who received a glue gun for Christmas.

Ecocrafts Gorgeous Gifts is for other glue-gun-happy kids. It describes thirteen crafts that can be made from recycled materials, from socks to Styrofoam to potato chip bags. A few are old news, like the coffee can drum and sock puppet, but most are fresh ideas for reducing waste and creating a unique gift: a coffee stirrer bookmark, a scrap paper bracelet, jar lid magnets.

All of the crafts are extremely simple and accompanied by illustrated step-by-step instructions. You probably have most of the materials already; each craft uses everyday household items. The book also features consciousness-raising “ecofacts.” We discovered that recycling one glass bottle saves enough energy to run a computer for 25 minutes when reading the instructions for the baby food jar tealight candleholder. The book’s introduction describes how reusing items benefits the environment in simple, kid-friendly language, and also gives tips on creating a basic craft kit.

This book would be a great gift for a child, but the crafts are very simple and probably wouldn’t be appropriate for someone over the age of eleven. However, there is enough here to keep younger children busy for an afternoon, and along with the valuable lessons of creativity and environmental consciousness this book inspires in children, it also encourages thoughtful gift-giving: “When you give a gift that you have made yourself, you are giving a special present. . . . The person you give it to will love it because you took the time to make it for them.”

Truer words were never spoken. I still remember the lavish praise I received for the toilet paper tube kaleidoscopes my friends and family received for Christmas, the year before I got my glue gun.

Written by: Anne Wilmoth, June 25th 2007

Soxy Throw Pillow

admin — Thu, 21 Jun 2007 11:31:00 +0000

By Sin in Linen

It’s sultry, it’s sexy, it’s foxy... it’s soxy.

This throw pillow from Sin in Linen—purveyors of stylishly unique bedding—features a modern pin-up queen lounging in striped knee socks and wearing a come-hither expression. Beautifully constructed, thoughtfully detailed—she has multiple earrings!—this pillow is arguably the best offering from Sin in Linen’s lovely array of punk and pin-up themed duvet covers, towels, sheets, pillows and more.

The unique round design makes it a wonderful complement to existing collections of throw pillows, and at fifteen inches, it is actually functional for reclining, not just for looking cool. It looks great in black and white cotton, but beware of resting a made-up face on it: your cosmetics could rub off on the white fabric!

The company’s website calls it a “conversation piece,” and it almost certainly will be the edgiest, boldest, most eye-catching addition to your couch or bed.

Written by: Anne Wilmoth, June 21st 2007

Girls in Trouble with the Law

admin — Wed, 16 May 2007 00:00:00 +0000

By Laurie Schaffner

Rutgers University Press

“I was like four or six when my babysitter molested me... I would just freeze... Like I thought if I froze it would not have happened.”

This 16-year-old girl’s memory is an all too familiar one for Laurie Schaffner. Her multi-year, qualitative study of girls involved in the juvenile corrections system, Girls in Trouble with the Law, quickly revealed that virtually all of the girls interviewed had witnessed or experienced some form of violence, abuse, or neglect—trauma that can be directly linked to girls’ later lawbreaking, Schaffner argues.

Employing a self-described “feminist sociology,” Schaffner seeks to give voice to a largely-invisible population of detained girls, interspersing their accounts of the abuse in their lives and experiences within the legal system with vastly informative analysis on the various processes at work in these girls’ lives. Schaffner’s interviewees, like all American girls and women, were affected by a hyper-sexualized, consumerist culture thriving on the eroticization of young women. Often living in “empty families” where abuse and neglect were commonplace, the girls also dealt variously with poverty, racism, sexism, homophobia and a lack of quality education and emotional support.

Scaffner also examines the rise in violent crime among girls, an inevitable outcome of living in violent environments according to the girls in the study, but often characterized by others as a violation of conventional norms of femininity. “A dramatic amount of resistance, rebellion, and rage had developed among girls in trouble,” Schaffner writes, concluding that the violence the young women perpetrated was a type of “power of the powerless.”

The immense amount of sadness in these girls’ lives was overwhelming. They had no time, energy or resources for grieving after they had been raped, witnessed the beating of a mother or lost custody of their child. Many of them had much-older boyfriends, were forced to parent their own parents, experienced sexual harassment at school and in their communities and echoed a culturally-constructed attitude of misogyny toward other girls.

What at first glance seemed to be a dense, academic work was actually very readable, incorporating detained girls’ artwork and poetry with Schaffner’s convincing arguments on behalf of troubled young women. Schaffner’s work is honest and focused, and immensely enlightening to those who are not daily faced with the same struggles as these girls on the margins.

Written by: Anne Wilmoth, May 15th 2007

Basic Instinct Sex Attractant

admin — Mon, 14 May 2007 23:21:00 +0000

By Pure Romance

Pheromones: gimmick or aphrodisiac? Pure Romance would tell you the latter is definitely the case. “Next time you are headed out, dab a little Basic Instinct behind your ears, on your neck, and wrists and watch as people are drawn to you!” the company’s website exhorts.

I decided to put Basic Instinct Sex Attractant to the test. I applied it liberally and headed to the mall, where I was immediately approached by a man in the food court. It’s actually working! I thought. Turned out he was just handing out teriyaki chicken samples. They were good. I had two. No one else seemed “drawn” to me in any way.

Pure Romance, a company that sells sex toys and accessories through in-home parties, names Basic Instinct Sex Attractant is one of their top sellers. The power of the cologne is based on pheromones, chemicals emitted by living organisms to send messages to individuals of the same species. I’ve read that waitresses get better tips while wearing pheromones, but I sure didn’t attract any sex the week I wore it.

The cologne, which has a roll-on applicator, has a light, citrus-y, summery scent, and while it could be worn as a pleasant fragrance, I don’t put much stock in its ability to get you in the sack.

Written by: Anne Wilmoth, May 14th 2007