HOME / the breakfast table: An e-mail conversation about the news of the day.

Next Year ...

Posted Friday, April 19, 2002, at 6:51 AM ET

Who are these people?

Dear Atul,

Me? Obsessed with John Ashcroft? Just because I mention him repeatedly, at the slimmest excuse, and would be happy include him in our discussion of injectable Botox, except I think he has a natural source of Botox within. And you're right about Halle: Through the entire Oscar meltdown, her forehead was frozen.

It's been wonderful talking to you, and I'm so glad I didn't have to visit your clinic to do it.

Back in the days when my grandmother and her siblings were alive, we had very long and painfully complete Seders, said in both Hebrew and English, all interwoven with what my mother called "kitchen Yiddish." And when the Seder was through, they'd all toast, "Next year in Jerusalem."

My toast now is, may there be a Jerusalem next year, and may it be, for a change, out of the news and off "The Breakfast Table."

Great good cheer,
Natalie

Next Year ...

Posted Friday, April 19, 2002, at 6:51 AM ET
Print This ArticlePRINTEmail to a FriendE-MAILShare This ArticleRECOMMEND...Get Slate RSS FeedsRSS
Natalie Angier is a science writer for the New York Times and the author of Woman: An Intimate Geography. Atul Gawande, a surgical resident in Boston, is a staff writer on medicine for The New Yorker and author of the new book Complications: A Surgeon's Notes on an Imperfect Science.
Illustration by Mark Alan Stamaty.
What did you think of this article?
Join The Fray: Our Reader Discussion Forum
POST A MESSAGE | READ MESSAGES
TODAY'S PICTURES
TODAY'S CARTOONS
TODAY'S DOONESBURY
TODAY'S VIDEO
Wheels.17/091214_TP.jpg
Cartoonists' take on President Obama.13/091214_TC.jpg
The 12 days of Tiger.17/091214_TD.jpg