Happy Christmas
The Master and Margarita, celebrating the holidays, and eyebrows.
Merry Christmas, Happy Hanukkah
I’m writing this on Christmas Eve, a day that’s special to me for so many reasons but also so bittersweet because I really don’t want Christmas to end. I love the winter holidays, and now with Hanukkah over and the Christmas season ending tomorrow, I’m facing the bleak celebration-less winter ahead, and I’m not happy about it!
For reasons I get into in the first chapter of Whistleblower, I celebrate both Hanukkah and Christmas and am raising my kids to do the same, so we have a bit of a mixed-celebration/combined-faith family thing going on. (Is it confusing? Maybe for some, not for me. Is it fun? Absolutely.) I love the spirit of both holidays, love what celebrating them reminds me of, love what they mean to me and so many others. Most of the year, I tend to feel far from my fellow man, but during this time of year, everyone feels a little closer, a little more forgiving, a little more kind.
I have a little over twenty-four hours left, and I’m doing my best to cram them with music, joy, cuddles with my kids, time with my husband, lots of board games, and fantastic food (thanks to Chad).
Merry Christmas and Happy Hanukkah to all who celebrate!
I hope your holidays are filled with joy and love and meaning.
The Master and Margarita
Speaking of Christmas, today the The Boston Globe published my essay about why The Master and Margarita is the ultimate modern Christmas novel. For reasons I explain in the essay, I find myself reaching for Bulgakov’s masterpiece every Christmas, and I think it deserves a place in the Christmas canon. You can read it at this link: https://www.bostonglobe.com/2025/12/25/opinion/master-margarita-book-christmas/
Eyebrows and Datacenters in Space
I’ve spent my entire career in journalism as an editor, so I’ve been having a great deal of fun hanging out on the other side recently, writing pieces for various outlets. In November, I wrote about Google’s space datacenter project for Slate (which you can read here: https://slate.com/technology/2025/11/google-project-suncatcher-ai-data-center-chatbots.html), and for a recent issue of Air Mail LOOK, I wrote a piece about eyebrow microblading (https://airmail.news/look/issues/2025-12-5/brow-wow).
(Many more coming soon in the new year!)