The Nutcracker: Odious Fluff or Timeless Type?

Every year, I have an argument with my husband about the value of The Nutcracker, the ballet. Sam considers this holiday standard an insufferable time-waster having nothing to do with the real Christmas, a quaint costume drama that devolves into an interminable and inexplicable glorification of candy and tulle. But, I plead, don’t you see?

I Was Not Expecting Sam’s Proposal

I, Mary K. Carter, was not expecting a proposal.  Sure, I liked him, but there were so many red flags.  We met at a Sixties costume dance.  Sam, who was a street musician, did not need to wear a costume, because he already looked the part.  I was an artist, recently converted to Christianity.  I craved stability, which Sam did …

How to Tell a Guy, “Go Jump in a Lake!”

One reader asks, in response to the Jump-In-The-Lake post,  “How can I say “no” to a man asking me out in a way that does not crush, but rather encourages, his masculinity?”   I could think of no better person to answer this than one of the world’s leading experts in encouraging masculinity: Mary K. Andreades. So I asked her …