Just reading Michael Hoffman's terrific new collection of essays, and found this, in a review of a book about the friendship between Robert Frost and Edward Thomas: "They both had families--Frost with his four children, Thomas with three--[...] but basically neither had very much to show for his time on earth... ."

Now, I'm thinking to myself, I guess that's not something you'd say of a woman with four, or even just three, children, so how come you can say it of a man?

Beverley Bie Brahic