SPORTS
Sailing II: On the Chesapeake Bay
I always like to end a season doing something new. For me, a novel activity provides a segue into that same season the following year—it gives me something fresh to look forward to. The end of summer 2008 was like that for us. Not that I need something to help me look forward to summer—winter itself does that well enough. But each year, I find it harder and harder to watch the summer, in particular, end. This year, our end-of-September sailing charter on the Chesapeake Bay was timed perfectly for the last two days of summer. And, it already had me already thinking about next year: Hmmm, maybe we’ll reserve a bigger boat, bring the rest of the family . . .

BODY
YOU: Staying Young
At first glance, YOU Staying Young: The Owner’s Manual for Extending Your Warranty, by Michael F. Roizen MD and Mehmet C. Oz MD, looks as though it should be titled Longevity for Dummies. It has all the hallmarks of the Dummies series of self-help books: the ubiquitous call-outs, the graphic icons, a cartoon every couple of pages, the breezy informal style. Whether you learn anything from this book depends in large part on how you handle large doses of cuteness. Almost every sentence contains an outrageous metaphor. My body was compared to a car, a city, Swiss cheese, and a “rust belt factory,” among other things. The cartoons, by genius Gary Hallgren, are also rich in puns: the "Gaul [sic] Bladder," for example, is depicted as an uncooperative Frenchman.

CULTURE
“The Existential Crisis of the Wait-at-Home Mom”
The headline article in the October Philadelphia magazine caught my eye recently. In “Now What? The Existential Crisis of the Wait-at-Home Mom,” author Vicki Glembocki begins “The first generation of Philly women who ‘opted out’ in order to stay home with their kids is now ready for what’s next. Trouble is, opting back in can be pretty scary when you aren’t even sure who you are anymore.” Glembocki goes on to interview six Main Line women attending a Narberth yoga class to exercise their demons—demons brought on by their newfound loss of self as their children leave the nest.

GENERATIONS
Levittown: Hometown Then and Now
When I returned a few years ago to live in my hometown, I was struck again by that dichotomy that touches all of us at one time or another relentless change juxtaposed with the timeless constants of life. Although many of my peers have left the town that William Levitt built with production-line speed in the boom years following World War II, many of the original "settlers" remain in homes that have been expanded, improved, and updated to meet the needs of today's style of living. My family’s home, though, somehow weathered the times in somewhat pristine fashion, with only a new roof and heater to show for its 50 years of existence, making it all the more memory-provoking.