Elizabeth Austin

But what are the implications for social life, and for society itself, if we lose the basic ability to listen, to ponder, and to respond–the ability to converse? It was with those thoughts in mind that I welcomed’ the publication of Stephen Miller’s Conversation: A History of a Declining Art, which promised to be an […]

Within minutes, we were at the emergency room, where a cluster of security guards stood glued to the blaring football game on the television. Frantic, I started to sign in. “Speak up, please,” the triage nurse barked testily above the televised din. “I can’t hear you.” I helped my dry-heaving husband to the bathroom, then […]

As host, Ms. Lewinsky functions as Hayley’s on-site girlfriend, giggling with her at hidden-camera footage that shows the suitors misbehaving at a party and helping her to make the undoubtedly difficult decision to dump the guy who slipped off into a bathroom to share a few intimate moments with a hula dancer. The show has […]

Jean Kerr was the epitome of the great gal, back in an era of great gals. With her best-selling book, Please Don’t Eat the Daisies, she created a persona that was competent, funny, self-assured, calm in the face of domestic emergency, unapologetically competitive on the tennis court, and tremendously gifted when it came to keeping […]

I was stunned; I’d always thought of her as a Red Ball Jets girl. But I wasn’t surprised that the insistent commercial jingles of her childhood remained embedded in her brain. It’s hard to imagine a baby boomer who doesn’t know which brand of chicken noodle soup is “M’m! M’m! Good!,” what kind of bread […]