Hierarchy can kill people. Take the case of Korean Air, which suffered a high rate of crashes until the airline was re-structured so that the crew was required to address each other informally, in English. What had happened was that the planes had quite literally crashed and burned because inferiors were too polite to doContinue reading “Gender hierarchy: For a new baby girl”
Author Archives: Katie Botkin
On Homeschooling
The other night, as I lounged on a couch more posh than comfortable, imbibing a flight of Syrah at the local wine bar, a friend — everyone is a friend in this town — leaned across the very large coffee table and told me she was homeschooling her kids. “You were homeschooled, right?” She askedContinue reading “On Homeschooling”
Language, IQ and firstborns
For the past couple of decades, I’ve come in and out of contact with articles saying that firstborn children tend to have better verbal skills, on average, than their younger siblings. This, of course, gelled with my own experience as a preternaturally linguistic firstborn child — my mother recorded my early verbal expressions faithfully, reportingContinue reading “Language, IQ and firstborns”
It might be a little bit complicated
My cousins Anna Sophia and Elizabeth Botkin have sent me their latest book for Christmas, It’s (not that) Complicated: How to Relate to Guys in a Healthy, Sane, and Biblical way. They inscribed it to “our dear Katie, with much love from your cousins.” Honestly, such things always choke me up a little, because IContinue reading “It might be a little bit complicated”
Ghost of Christmas past
This is the third Christmas I have spent away from my own family. The first was in 2001, in East Berlin, when I was 20 years old. I was studying abroad in France, and I managed to procure an invitation from a German boy exactly three years my senior who had visited my family inContinue reading “Ghost of Christmas past”
Fiji handling
Summing up a trip to a resort with a tale of how good the massages were seems intrinsically dull. It should all sort of go without saying. However, being under the hands of a capable masseuse after a very long day of travel is, in the flesh, so pleasant that my immediate reaction was toContinue reading “Fiji handling”
Thanksgiving
We spent Thanksgiving with the Ewers family, as in days of yore.
Conference photos
Some of my favorite photos from conferences over the years.
Almost famous
I always wondered what it would be like to be famous. You know, have nice people admire you from afar, want to hang out with you before they’d even met you. Put your photo up on their bulletin board at college. Do a secret dance when they actually did meet you a decade later. ItContinue reading “Almost famous”
Faith-based laws and lack thereof
Recently, there has been a not-so-subtle dislike of anything resembling Sharia law in the United States. Conservative Christians may accuse more liberal secularists of turning a blind eye in the name of tolerance and religious diversity, but all the while Christians defend legislation that could do far more to protect Sharia law than anything theContinue reading “Faith-based laws and lack thereof”
Botkin Creative 