The tragic accident in a Rhode Island parking lot on Sunday might have happened to a friend or another NYC pedestrian due to a reckless driver at about the same time.

Pulitzer Prize winning author and historian Gordon Wood, 92, was hit by a car and died. The difference is that apparently his death was a terrible mistake. As the 69-year-old driver made a left turn Dr. Wood stepped off the sidewalk. It’s a brutal example of how a life can change in an instant.

As I wrote, it could have happened here.

My friend was in the middle of a Manhattan crosswalk. She yelled “STOP” at a driver who was ignoring the red light, inching up to drive through it. Ignoring her, the driver turned on Second Avenue while the light was still red, almost hitting a woman on a bike. As she drove away, she blew through another red light.

My friend snapped photos of the car and license plate and asked a traffic cop how to report the driver. He told her to call 911.

She wrote, “The 911 operator was not too bright and had me describe the incident several times. She also didn’t know that 2nd Avenue runs downtown! It was pretty scary to realize that if it had been a dire situation, I’m not sure how much help the 911 operator would have been.”

I called 911 twice in the 25 years we had a house in a town of 1,400 in Dutchess County, New York. Each time my husband had knocked himself out, once falling from an extremely high ladder and the second time, slipping on ice. The operators were crackerjack, calling for help while calming me as we waited for assistance, which came lickety split.

You’d think that the city would have equally competent 911 support.

Have you reported an accident waiting to happen or had dealings with 911?

   

My parents married in Paris in the 1930s. My mother was appalled when the bank told her she needed her husband’s permission to open a bank account even though the money was hers. When I was divorced 50 years later, because the credit cards were in both our names, I had to scramble to get credit even though I paid all of the bills and could prove it.

I thought those days were long over until I read a press release from The Atlantic about the magazine’s cover story, “The Men Who Don’t Want Women to Vote,” by Helen Lewis.

The article is about masculinism. “Driven by social media, masculinism has moved from the fringes to the mainstream,” wrote Léa Clermont-Dion in theconversation.com.

Back to The Atlantic’s press release, “Helen Lewis reports on the rise of ‘masculinism,’ a movement to fight back against the advances of feminism and reassert the primacy of men. Lewis argues that multiple strains of anti-feminism—from the Christian right, from the manosphere, and from Donald Trump—have coalesced and become a new and potent force in American political life.”

Quoting Lewis: “Far from being a fringe belief system, masculinism has become the single most important force uniting the American right, bringing together an unlikely constellation of pastors, posters, senators, preachers, influencers, podcasters, and fanboys.”

Lewis describes what she calls a program of affirmative action for men that esposes: “the rollback of no-fault divorce; tax breaks to reward male breadwinners and female homemakers; an end to anything with a whiff of DEI, even leadership programs for women in the military, including one cut by Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth; a return to the workplace culture of the 1970s, where sexual harassment was normalized; an open preference for male employees in hiring, promotion, and pay awards.”

My childhood home was a hotbed of lively discussion. Nobody was going to tell my mother how to think or vote. I didn’t always agree with my husband either. When we met, we were registered to vote in different political parties. We were in luck. What happened to one of those parties made us see eye to eye towards the end of his life.

Do you think one person should rule the roost, control the finances and determine major action for a couple? With so many women working and with prices skyrocketing making this added source of income essential, how does masculinism justify itself? Do you know any women who would agree to such a dynamic?

   

I’m a big fan of advice columns. Love reading them and heard about this creative extension of one a few months ago.

A Boston Globe podcaster and longtime advice columnist–“Love Letters”–had a great idea. Collaborating with the Boston Public Library, Meredith Goldstein launched a Love Letters phone booth. She wrote about it in “The Boston Public Library and Love Letters invite you to call Love Letters and share.”

This is how it works: “You go in, pick up the phone, and choose from a set of options. The main goal is for you to leave an anonymous question – feel free to ramble about your relationship quandaries! – and I’ll do my best to address it in the Love Letters column, which appears on Boston.com and in The Boston Globe.”

She wrote “Phone booths have always seemed to offer privacy. A few years ago, I asked myself: ‘How can I make this magic phone booth come to life?’” She referenced Superman, Dr. Who, “Will Ferrell’s character, Ron Burgundy, tells a friend that a phone booth is a ‘glass case of emotion’ – because he’s crying inside of it.”

She listed a bunch of reasons for choosing the library for the phone booth. Some include it’s the place people “go to share and receive stories,” “where we keep records of past experiences” and “help us find a path out of loneliness – for free.” She added “They’re where we seek answers to questions.”

Participants don’t have to identify themselves and some of their words might be used on the podcast.

“By contributing, you’re giving a gift. If you look back at advice column history (they’ve been around for centuries!), it’s clear that when people share their problems, other people get to feel less alone about their own.”

Have you ever asked a question to an advice columnist? Do you enjoy reading the questions and answers? Any favorites?

   

A friend enjoys playing Spelling Bee, one of The New York Times games, so I’ve just given it a try to unspectacular results. She said it’s good brain exercise. I worry it will be a time sponge.  I’ll have to set a limit.

Can you spell bromocriptine?

The 14-year-old California eighth grader, Shrey Parikh, can. He won the 2026 Scripps National Spelling Bee. The competition was a nailbiter. His competition was brilliant. He won the runoff against another whiz kid and was celebrated on network TV. I’m not the only one impressed.

But is the skill an anachronism in the world of AI? Or will the character of children who dedicate themselves to such a win pushing themselves above and beyond impact their futures in a good way whether or not they win?

   

Why do we allow ourselves to be poisoned? We have been content to subject ourselves to toxins in favorite foods no less.

I was glad to see that New York State has banned the manufacture and sale of potassium bromate in flour which is already banned in California, Canada, China, the European Union, UK and India. It won’t be removed, for example, in our bagels and pizza–which use this additive–until next year. It improves the performance of dough in commercial baking.

And there is a cousin of poisons in food– flavored vapes that are thought will be especially enticing to young people. “The F.D.A. issued new guidance that could pave the way for major tobacco companies to begin selling flavored vapes and to snare a chunk of the $6 billion e-cigarette market away from illegal Chinese competitors. The new policy bypassed the F.D.A.’s regular rule-making process,” Christina Jewett and Kenneth P. Vogel wrote in The New York Times. The title of their article, “With a Friend in Trump, the Tobacco Industry Secures a Lucrative Win,”

Regarding the potassium bromate, what about the rest of the States? Shouldn’t they ban it too? Will pizza and bagel sales plummet in New York waiting for the law to kick in in 2027? How come so many other countries have forbidden it and we haven’t?

The title of the New York Times article explains why we can expect to see flavored vapes on the market. Why aren’t they banned or strictly controlled by exorbitant pricing regardless of where they are made?