How did we end the summer ... stuck between a Roberts and a hard place We've spent months poring over 60,000 pages from the National Archives and reams of personal profiles for clues about how John Roberts would rule on the highest court in land. ... The bottom line is that barring some last minute photo of John Roberts popping out of a cake at a KKK rally smoking crack, he's going to be confirmed. And if he were magically derailed, who would be next ... John Roberts may turn out to be as far right as People for the American Way says. But he may also be as good as it gets under this administration. (Ellen Goodman)
There's a trick to the Graceful Exit. It begins with the vision to recognize when a job, a life stage, a relationship is over - and to let go. It means leaving what's over without denying its value. (Ellen Goodman)
You can fire your secretary, divorce your spouse, abandon your children. But they remain your co-authors forever. (Ellen Goodman)
I regard this novel as a work without redeeming social value, unless it can be recycled as a cardboard box. (Ellen Goodman)
We spend January 1 walking through our lives, room by room, drawing up a list of work to be done, cracks to be patched. Maybe this year, to balance the list, we ought to walk through the rooms of our lives . . ., not looking for flaws, but for potential. (Ellen Goodman)
Values are not trendy items that are casually traded in. (Ellen Goodman)
Now that we have waved 'Bye, Bye, Brownie' to Michael Brown, the hapless head of FEMA, could we turn our sights back to another agency on the skids the Food and Drug Administration. (Ellen Goodman)
We owned what we learned back there; the experience and the growth are grafted into our lives. (Ellen Goodman)
Frankly, people who buy Showtime pay-per-view are supporting him and supporting the notion that you can get away with anything. (Ellen Goodman)
Socrates might respond this way How does one rehabilitate a man who won't acknowledge having sinned How do you heal somebody who doesn't admit they want it ... Even your basic 12-step programs say you have to admit what your behavior was. (Ellen Goodman)
Most people do not consider dawn to be an attractive experience - unless they are still up. (Ellen Goodman)
We are told that people stay in love because of chemistry, or because they remain intrigued with each other, because of many kindnesses, because of luck . . . But part of it has got to be forgiveness and gratefulness. (Ellen Goodman)
Normal is getting dressed in clothes that you buy for work, driving through traffic in a car that you are still paying for, in order to get to a job that you need so you can pay for the clothes, car and the house that you leave empty all day in order to afford to live in it. (Ellen Goodman)
In journalism, there has always been a tension between getting it first and getting it right. (Ellen Goodman)
We criticize mothers for closeness. We criticize fathers for distance. How many of us have expected less from our fathers and appreciated what they gave us more? How many of us always let them off the hook? (Ellen Goodman)