Mary Katharine Ham

Women are more likely to take a job that pays less to gain flexibility and work-life balance. I've done it myself many times.

I'm convinced the most powerful example my mom set for me was not working outside the home, although she did and she was dedicated and great at it. She worked outside the home and never seemed ashamed of it.

There is no perfect version of life, no alternate reality in which you get to achieve everything you ever wanted in your career, travel anywhere you ever wanted, and still experience every first in your children's lives.

There are a thousand reasons for missing one of your kids' firsts. Some moms may have just been in another room making breakfast when it happened. It doesn't feel great, but it's not the end of the world.

A full life does not allow for a mom to be with every child in every conceivable moment. Some moms are there more often than others are, some have more children than others do.

One of the hallmarks of a Trump administration has been to introduce us to quintessentially New York characters and their special brand of famous rich people infighting.

Often, a correct criticism of President Donald Trump is he violates norms. Too often, those who criticize him resort to violating norms themselves to fight him.

I never got the fascination with the royals as I was growing up. I had no particular issue with them but didn't indulge.

Secure Americans should be at peace with our special relationship with Britain and happy to celebrate her special occasions, no matter how odd they seem to us.

We fought a war for the freedom to care about what we want to care about, and this is among the things we may choose as free Americans.

Some Americans are under the grossly mistaken impression that because we violently and triumphantly unyoked ourselves from the British Empire oh so many years ago, we are under some sort of informal directive to spurn the traditions and hoopla of the royal family.

Passionate critics of the president often go after him because he violates norms and goes to extraordinary measures to take on his adversaries. Fair, but in the next breath, they'll advocate violating norms and going to extraordinary measures to take out Trump.

Comey clearly doesn't want Trump to be president. He has some of the same concerns about his moral character as I have and, indeed, as many of Trump's own voters had when they pulled the lever for him.

Trump attacks the media because trust in media is low.

Despite the hype, Equal Pay Day is, at best, a simplistic understanding of the factors that create wage differences. At worst, it's an intentional misrepresentation of a phenomenon that almost completely ignores the choices, wishes, and motivations of women in the workplace.

For women, a combination of protecting family life, prioritizing young children, and dealing with rising child-care costs cause them to leave the work force entirely for years at a time.

For a movement meant to smash the patriarchy, Equal Pay Day shares one of its worst habits - the apparent inability to listen to actual women.

In the past, it's been possible to say that calls for repeal of the Second Amendment or widespread gun bans and confiscation were crackpot calls outside the mainstream of American liberalism. But during the Parkland response, that has become progressively less plausible.

Ask anyone the best part of the classic comedy, 'My Cousin Vinny,' and they'll likely say Mona Lisa Vito.

The world has a rich tradition of leaders who fancy themselves smart enough to determine what the people should and shouldn't hear, and crack down on unpopular or minority positions or people for society's 'good.' This is not an innovation of modern college campuses.

Protections of free speech are what makes inclusion and diversity possible.

Protecting free speech is literally inclusion. Not protecting free speech rights is literally exclusion of certain viewpoints.

College students overwhelmingly support free speech in the abstract, but when it comes to the real world, they are accepting of restrictions on it, which is in effect, not very supportive of free speech.

Grief has several stages, and contrary to popular belief, they don't occur in any specific order. One can experience anger and bargaining and depression all at once.

The coronavirus is serving up a rare and tragic mix of grief, drastic life changes, and economic stress to a huge swath of the country.

There are injustices in the world. Life isn't fair.

I'm not a fan of Dylan's music, per se, but I'm not a hater. I like the American folk music tradition, and I'll listen to 'Don't Think Twice, It's All Right' on repeat a couple times a year if the mood strikes. Beyond that, I'm sort of befuddled by the Dylan phenomenon.

Before 'trolling' was a phenomenon with a well-known name, PETA had perfected it.

I love the idea of the divine spark. It crosses a lot of cultures and religions, the idea that you carry a bit of the Creator inside you, that it animates your life.

When you lose someone, you go through a lot of metaphors. Our vocabulary falters in the face of death.

My mother and father had to change every clock in the house manually and they had three small children. Yet I never remember them complaining about something so inconsequential as Daylight Saving Time.

The Real Housewives' franchise is unabashedly lowbrow, and that is the secret to its success.

Can you have too much of a good thing? When that thing is 'Fast and Furious' franchise installments, one would think the answer would be simple - there's no such thing.

Disappearing controversial words and works doesn't make us smarter.

A lot of art can potentially make people uncomfortable, particularly when it deals with different times and hard issues.

Calm, censorious mobs are still censorious mobs.

I like football.

TV images are powerful and sometimes unfair.

My husband died in a cycling accident in a race to benefit cancer research. I lost my partner, I lost his contribution to our household income, and I lost my idea of what kind of parent I was.

People will take every opportunity to pay you nothing if you're willing to do your work for free, be you man or woman. Women give people that opportunity more often than men do.

If you want to be paid for your job, you need to insist on being paid for your job.

I don't usually watch awards shows.

In the end, 'Darkest Hour' tells the story of the near destruction of Western Civilization. 'Dunkirk' allows you to feel it in all its uncomfortable, confusing horror. You'll remember 'Dunkirk,' but if you watch 'Darkest Hour,' the moment in history and the people who defined it will stick with you, too.

I found 'Dunkirk' visceral and the timeline a bit challenging, but it paid off nicely as the movie's three storylines join as the action culminates.

Darkest Hour' is all claustrophobic settings paired with a much bigger window on the conflict.

Dunkirk' is all big vistas, but ultimately a very confined picture of the war.

If there's one thing I've learned about First Lady Melania Trump since her husband was elected president, it's that she can wear the hell out of a coat. Dramatic, functional, militaristic, sporty, tailored, avant garde - she covers a lot of ground with her coverings.

It's important to the country for the gulf between many American voters and the people who cover them to get smaller.

Mistakes will always happen, but the way they're corrected can help.

Trump doesn't care much about anyone's speech if it disagrees with him, and that's an extremely bad trait in a president making public pronouncements.