Naomi Shulman

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I almost didn’t turn on the radio this morning.
I knew what the coverage would be, and I knew it would devastate me. All those tweens and teens, happily bopping away at a pop concert, their parents at a safe distance, or so they thought. And my girls — did they need to hear more of it, too?
“It could have been us,” I said before I stopped myself.
“I wouldn’t go to an Ariana Grande concert,” my 12-year-old, Stella, replied.
But ...

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The writer Kat Kinsman likes to say, “Don’t read the bottom half of the Internet.” And like many writers, I generally follow that advice. When you write for publication, your words go on to have lives of their own, apart from you and your personal experience — even if your personal experience is what you’re writing about. It’s not useful to get caught up in a back-and-forth with strangers on the Internet, even Cognoscenti reade...

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Well, apparently everyone “knew” about Harvey Weinstein. It was the biggest open secret in Hollywood, I hear. I don’t move in those circles, of course, so I didn’t know about Weinstein's reputation. But the moment I read about the allegations against him, I realized I recognized them, in a way. So does almost every other woman I know.
When I was in my early 20s, a professor of mine invited a male student and me out for drinks. ...

Interior designer Frank Roop contrasts classic architecture with unexpected details. By Naomi Shulman
How do you turn a buttoned-up, formal estate into a weekend-friendly, barefoot-casual escape? That’s the challenge Boston-based interior designer Frank Roop faced with an upstate New York home, built by Mormon farmer Anson Pratt in 1796. The 4,200-square-foot house exemplifies the Adam style, an 18th-century neoclassical design known for ornate, neo-Gothic flourishes—and not for a laid-back v...

Did you hear about Frances Gabe, a woman who died recently at the ripe age of 101 — and whose claim to fame was the world’s first (and, so far, only) self-cleaning house? A video of her demonstrating the house to journalists made the rounds on social media a few weeks ago, and I was fascinated. She lived in what was essentially a huge dishwasher — to “clean” a room, she’d leave it, seal the doors shut, and turn on the water jets. Half an hour later, the room would be sparkling, if damp. Doesn...

Not that I owe you any explanations, but here’s why I said yes when my 16-year-old asked to get a lip piercing.
First, let the record show that I am not a big fan of facial piercings in general. I’m always distracted by how painful they must have been to receive. The idea of willingly allowing my children to undergo pain is all kinds of wrong. When I consented to Lila’s first vaccination, we were still in the hospital birthing room, and I think I cried more loudly than she did. So: pain. Aren...

Examining the indefinable art behind the ‘surrealist cabaret’ of the Royal Frog Ballet in Western Massachusetts.
It can be difficult to pin down the Royal Frog Ballet. Combining elements of dance, music, visual art, and live theater, it fits neatly in none of those categories. While it runs in the tradition of agitprop art, it is consciously apolitical. It might be easiest to think of Royal Frog Ballet as a waking dream, one that germinated in the collective unconscious of recent college grad...

Family dinner had once been a sacred time for this writer and her daughters. But after her marriage ended, the daily ritual morphed into something new—and unexpectedly lovely.
Looking for ways to make family dinner easier, tastier, and just straight-up less crazy-making? We have 18 suggestions right here.
Twenty-five years ago, when my future husband and I first met, he wooed me with a home-cooked eggplant parmesan, laying the groundwork for countless meals to come. First one daughter arrived...

The Newlywed Game: Will She Take His Name? | Cognos...

I don't want my daughters to have abortions, but I want them to know they can come to me.

A painting showed a young woman what love looked like. And then it came to life.