The Lost Lexus
in The Secret Currency of Love , published January 2009 (at Amazon)
It was the eve of our first wedding anniversary, and I was still trying to understand my husband's financial philosophy and the extent to which it was a philosophy. I was hoping it was more a matter of habit because one thing was plain: it was different from mine. Michael was frugal.
Jason Shinder
The New York Times Magazine, December 28, 2008
Death is the ultimate subject for a poet. It's the ultimate subject for all of us, of course—the self impossibly contemplating its impossible absence—but for a poet whose work is to express the inexpressible, it is a particular opportunity.
My Pain, My Brain
The New York Times Magazine, May 14, 2006
Who hasn't wished she could watch her brain at work and make changes to it, the way a painter steps back from a painting, studies it and decides to make the sky a different hue?
The New Arranged Marriage
The New York Times Magazine, February 13, 2005
Janis Spindel is on her way from her office on the Upper East Side of Manhattan to a nearby cafe to meet a gorgeous guy. ''Gorgeous,'' she tells me. ''Unreal. He's just my type -- 36, Jewish, Ivy League, successful. And gorgeous. Just gorgeous.''
Charlotte, Grace, Janet and Caroline Come Home
The New York Times Magazine, May 8, 2005
The rebels have ruined northern Uganda. No one wanted to look out the car window on the three-hour journey northwest from Lira to Gulu near the Sudanese border.
The Writing Cure
The New York Times Magazine, April 18, 2004
Chapter 1: A Healing Encounter, or How Medicine Lost Its Way and Tried to Restore a Sense of Story. There is nothing unusual about the case with which Rita Charon, a plenary speaker at a medical conference in Gainesville, Fla., began her lecture.
The Enchanting Little Princess (Profile of Natalie Portman)
The New York Times, November 7, 2004
In Mike Nichols's forthcoming movie, "Closer," Jude Law, playing a journalist, recounts to Natalie Portman how he first fell for her.
Shattered Sugar
Food & Wine, December 2004
Melanie Thernstrom tells how she was tempted to pilfer the best toffee recipe in the universe but found redemption in a different kind of sweet.
Untying the Knot
The New York Times Magazine, August 24, 2003
In most public accounts of divorce, there is no confusion as to why the couple is splitting up. The reasons are so sound -- the trails of manipulation, exploitation and betrayal so thick -- the only mystery is why the couple were together in the first place.
The Inheritance that Got Away
The New York Times Magazine, June 9, 2002
It was at my grandmother's memorial service that a friend of hers mentioned that my sculpture -- the one my grandmother had always promised to leave me -- was worth $4 million.
Pain, the Disease
The New York Times Magazine, December 16, 2001
A modern chronicler of hell might look to the lives of chronic-pain patients for inspiration. Theirs is a special suffering, a separate chamber, the dimensions of which materialize at the New England Medical Center pain clinic in downtown Boston.
My Best Friend's Wedding Cake
Food & Wine, June 2001
She wanted to make the cake for her best friend's wedding. And nothing (not even a plea from the bride) was going to stop her.
Silence of the Lam
The New York Times Magazine, December 3, 2000
Twenty years ago, Benjamin Holmes disappeared. Twelve years ago, his wife had him declared dead. Two months ago, he returned with a bang.
Becoming American 101
The New York Times Magazine, October 19, 1997
When Kyra Voss, a teacher at the Riverside Language School, walks into English-only class every day, she encounters a pained silence.
Spending Sickness
New York, July 15, 2002
Like many people, A.J. Pierce knows exactly what she earns, but has no idea what she spends—and she doesn't wish to know.
The Crucifixion of Matthew Shepard
Vanity Fair, March 1999
Tied to a wooden fence, tortured, and left to die, 21-year-old Matthew Shepard—a bright, sensitive freshman at the University of Wyoming—has become a national symbol of violance against gays.
Trouble in Paradise
George Magazine, September 1999
Even from this distance—six years later, in the emerald-white light of a patio overlooking Waikiki Beach—Ramdas Lamb insists he has no real understanding of the events that transformed his life.
The Craft
The New Yorker, October 18 & 15, 1999
They don't exactly look like a coven—Amelia Atwater-Rhodes and her three friends locking arms as they walk, their voice overlapping and merging into giggles.
Child's Play
New York, July 13, 1998
Two New Jersey High School sweethearts have a baby in secret and leave it in a Delaware dumpster.
Diary of a Murder
The New Yorker, June 3, 1996
A year after a young woman at Harvard killed her roommate and then took her own life, questions about why it happened, and whether it had to.