While I was in high school, my aunt and uncle used to call me “Marian the librarian,” and predicted that’s what I would become. I knew nothing about The Music Man, a musical of bygone era, in which a traveling salesman invades a wholesome Midwestern town and attempts to steal the heart of Marian, the town librarian. Out of idle curiosity, I watched it one day, and enjoyed it very much indeed.But that is not why I eventual...

The first time Mrs. Toner came onto my radar screen, I was fifteen years old, and I was in a tree house.The Toners lived next door to my family, in an upscale suburb of Washington, D.C. Mr. Toner was some kind of political type on Capitol Hill. He was never home, as his son, Brian – my best friend for a time - always complained. Brian hated his dad.Anyway, years earlier, my dad had built me a cool tree house in the crook...

I was so ashamed.Ashamed, and yet, with the revelation of what I had done, the memories of it – my obsession of it, really – are still as powerful as the sex itself.I am like a million other women, I think. No matter how we have lived - even those with successful jobs and successful husbands who treat us well and generally behave like gentlemen - at one time in our lives, we begin to feel trapped, unappreciated, ignored.U...

I’d been looking forward to picking up some new lingerie that Saturday, but never expected it to be so much fun!Ordinarily, I would shop at Les Intimes, but I’d kind of blown my budget the weekend before out in the Hamptons, so I decided to slum it at Bloomingdales on 59th. They have a great selection, and best of all, they leave you alone. I prefer shopping for thongs and panties without having someone looking over my sh...