There is nothing more mysterious than a TV set left on in an empty room. It is even stranger than a man talking to himself or a wo...man standing dreaming at her stove. It is as if another planet is communicating with you.LESSATTRIBUTION DETAIL »
Time to plant tears, says the almanac. The grandmother sings to the marvellous stove... and the child draws another inscrutable house.LESSATTRIBUTION DETAIL »
We were soundly taught and the curriculum carried no hint that we were young women and not young men. We were not corrupted by hom...e economics or dressmaking or cookery or any such soft substitute for hard thinking. We were compelled to take sciences whether we liked them or not, and mathematics and Latin were emphasized and excellently administered. Each year the student body petitioned for a course in home economics, for in that day no girl thought it possible that she might not marry, and each year the faculty sternly refused to yield to the request.LESSATTRIBUTION DETAIL »
Not on morality, but on cookery, let us build our stronghold: there brandishing our frying-pan, as censer, let us offer sweet ince...nse to the Devil, and live at ease on the fat things he has provided for his elect!LESSATTRIBUTION DETAIL »
Summer is different. We now have breakfast together, for example ... it hasn't happened in so long that we're not sure how to go a...bout it. So we bump into each other in the kitchen. I never saw Ozzie and Harriet bump into each other in the kitchen--not once. Ozzie knew his place was at the table, while Harriet knew that her place was at the stove.LESSATTRIBUTION DETAIL »
I found myself back in the sepulchral city resenting the sight of people hurrying through the streets to filch a little money from... each other, to devour their infamous cookery, to gulp their unwholesome beer, to dream their insignificant and silly dreams. Their bearing, which was simply the bearing of commonplace individuals going about their business in the assurance of perfect safety, was offensive to me like the outrageous flauntings of folly in the face of a danger it is unable to comprehend.LESSATTRIBUTION DETAIL »
Men have a low threshold for distraction. They are delicate. They are made nervous by having to do more than one thing at a time. ...They feel frazzled and angry if they have to answer three phone calls, and have a hard time settling back to work after the trauma. Women, on the other hand, develop the skill of doing many things at once. They tuck the phone in between their shoulders and their ears, hold a baby on one hip, stir a pot on the stove, all the while thinking about an idea for a story. They don't think it's unfair to have to do this. They think it's normal.LESSATTRIBUTION DETAIL »
Next-door a baker's apprentice with his wife, an employee in a printing-shop, she has inflammation of the ovaries. Wonder what tho...se two get out of life? Well, first of all, they get each other, then last Sunday a vaudeville and a film, then this or that club meeting and a visit to his parents. Nothing else? Well now, don't drop dead, sir. Add to that nice weather, bad weather, country picnics, standing in front of the stove, eating breakfast and so on. And what more do you get, you, captain, general, jockey, whoever you are? Don't fool yourself.LESSATTRIBUTION DETAIL »
At the violet hour, the evening hour that strives Homeward, and brings the sailor home from sea,... The typist home at teatime, clears her breakfast, lights Her stove, and lays out food in tins.LESSATTRIBUTION DETAIL »