by margaret on November 20, 2008
TRYING TO UNDERSTAND human genetics, it’s best to think in terms of distance, or how genetically far we are from one another. When it was proposed that we are related to chimps, the Victorians went wild, in part because they saw the distance between us and monkeys to be a lot closer than it is. A little knowledge later, and we’re all a lot more comfortable with being part of an evolving continuum, hairy as some of those stops along the road may be. So, who’s the closest of them all? Here’s a hint: She’s even closer than you think. [click to continue…]
by margaret on November 20, 2008
IT SEEMS that any Thanksgiving movie is also, without fail, a sister movie: two sisters, brothers and sisters, or mothers of sisters with their girls. When family gathers, siblings of every stripe are part of the picture, and hilarity (or desperation) tends to follow. For those making any version of sister connection this holiday, we’re serving up an order of films that might make you appreciate your own family’s brand of dysfunction. Somebody please pass the DVD. [click to continue…]
by margaret on November 20, 2008
THE OBVIOUS choice of sister fiction is Little Women by Louisa May Alcott, the standard about sisters Meg, Jo, Amy, and Beth March’s daily experiences as young women in the late nineteenth century. Also predictable, but more up to date: Think Rebecca Wells’s Divine Secrets of the Ya Ya Sisterhood, perhaps, or The Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants, the four-book young-adult series by Ann Brashares. At TSP, though, we sisters hate to be simply obvious. Here are some of our staff picks:
FROM ANASTASIA SMITH OF ‘CLAIMING SISTERHOOD’
•BEEZUS AND RAMONA, by BEVERLY CLEARY As a part of a series about the commonly misunderstood antics of Ramona Quimby, this young-adult novel portrays the comic (and constant) ruckus that 4-year-old Ramona causes in her older sister’s life. [click to continue…]
by margaret on November 20, 2008
NOT MUCH IN LIFE is harder than watching a sister endure illness, and too many of us have either suffered ourselves or helped another through the long journey of breast cancer. Now there’s another way to help your sisters. If you have a sister who’s experienced breast cancer, the Sister Study may be looking for you. [click to continue…]
by margaret on November 19, 2008
WHO CAN RESIST a good one-liner? Not us TSP types. Along the way as we’ve worked on building our network, we’ve collected a few favorites, in the hopes that you’ll help us build the list. Got a sister quote to share?
“Our siblings. They resemble us just enough to make all their differences confusing, and no matter what we choose to make of this, we are cast in relation to them our whole lives long.”–Susan Scarf Merrell, The Accidental Bond
“I, who have no sisters or brothers, look with some degree of innocent envy on those who may be said to be born to friends.”–James Boswell [click to continue…]
by margaret on November 15, 2008
WHILE THERE is no doubt that a woman’s place is in the House and in the Senate, how good is it when a set of sisters serve in Congress? We think it’s great. There are several stories of siblings serving in state legislatures, including the sister-brother Kramer pairing in Maryland and the three Calderon brothers in California, but Rep. Linda Sanchez (D, California, 39th Congressional District, LA County) and her sister, Rep. Loretta Sanchez (D, California, 47th Congressional District, Orange County) are unique as sister-Representatives. [click to continue…]
by margaret on November 10, 2008
LIKE WE ALWAYS SAY: If you want to be a better sister, read. What follows is the start of a nonfiction booklist for sisters (you may have seen the fiction list already). Please add suggested additions in the comments space, so that with your help, the list can grow.
Sadie Delany
•HAVING OUR SAY: THE DELANY SISTERS’ FIRST 100 YEARS, by SARAH L. DELANY, A. ELIZABETH DELANY, and AMY HILL HEARTH An oral history of the lives of Sadie and Bessie Delany, conducted by Amy Hill Hearth during a series of interviews when the sisters were 101 and 102 years old. Sadie was the first African-American woman to be granted permission to teach Domestic Science in New York, and Bessie was the second black woman to receive a dentistry license in the state. Their story is, in part, the story of the American civil rights movement. [click to continue…]
by margaret on November 9, 2008
WHEN SISTERS such as the Sukhahutas (left) team up in business, they soundly break the mold of the conventional family store. These collaborations use the complex bonds in sisterhood as their creative fodder, so it is no surprise that many sister-business ventures take the form of fashion and design. [click to continue…]
TRYING TO UNDERSTAND human genetics, it’s best to think in terms of distance, or how genetically far we are from one another. When it was proposed that we are related to chimps, the Victorians went wild, in part because they saw the distance between us and monkeys to be a lot closer than it is. A little knowledge later, and we’re all a lot more comfortable with being part of an evolving continuum, hairy as some of those stops along the road may be. So, who’s the closest of them all? Here’s a hint: She’s even closer than you think. [click to continue…]
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