Yes, I know that these days it’s cheaper to buy finished clothing than to buy cloth and sew a dress yourself. But I bought a sewing machine.

Compounding the horror, I also bought a waffle iron.

Waffle irons are frivolous. Ridiculous. One more thing to lug around. And what’s wrong with pancakes?

Despite all that, I bought a waffle iron. And I’ve been gardening. Hauling dirt. Planting bulbs. I kill almost everything I plant, but that’s beside the point. I’m trying.

Perhaps my 2001 diagnosis of ovarian cancer is to blame? Brain damage from the chemo? Or is it something deeper?

There’s a lot of talk about PTSD (Post Traumatic Stress Disorder) in military circles, but very little in cancer circles.

At first you just try to survive, and that takes up almost all the room in your heart and mind. If you make it to the end of treatment, and the holy grail of remission, the oncologist smiles and shoos you out the door with the words: Go live your life.

Then you’re in the parking lot, blinking at the sun. What now?…

[read my entire “She the People” column at The Washington Post: The healing path of dresses and waffles]

In addition to writing cards to her son, Gant made a 20-minute video in which she rages against the FDA for not allowing compassionate use of the drug Pertuzumab.

In February drug maker Roche announced that Pertuzumab was given priority review by FDA precisely because of its promising effect on HER2-positive breast cancer.

A phase III clinical trial revealed that metastatic breast cancer patients increased their progression-free survival from 12.4 months to 18.5 months longer when Pertuzumab was combined with two other chemotherapy drugs, Herceptin and docetaxel.

However, the earliest date Pertuzumab would become available is June 8, 2012. Gant knows where she stands, and she’s trying her best to parent from “the beyond.”…

[read my entire “She the People” column at The Washington Post: Dying mom makes breast cancer video, begs the FDA to have a heart]

Titanic Women's Memorial in Washington, DC. Unveiled in 1931, and dedicated to the men who gave their lives so that women and children could live. Memorial was recreated by Kate Winslet's "I'm flying!" pose in 1997 film "Titanic." Photo by dbking.

One hundred years ago, at 2:20 a.m. on April 15, the Titanic sank.

I just went to see the Imax 3-D re-release of the 1997 film “Titanic”despite my misgivings. Some believe that post-production 3-D is little more than a marketing gimmick that does not enhance the film.

I was not a big fan of the regular “Titanic.” As always, the unmiscastable Kate Winslet was glorious, and Leonard DiCaprio wasn’t bad himself. But in a way, that was part of the problem. “Titanic” is neither fish nor fowl.

Washington Post writer Ann Hornaday recently called the film a “hackneyed pastiche” with “caricatured villains and melodramatic hokum.” She’s not wrong.

The cheesy dialogue, cardboard characters and silly narrative might have earned the film a place of honor in the “craptacular” category of disaster films (“Poseidon Adventure,” “Towering Inferno,” and just about every volcano or earthquake movie ever made) were it not for stars Winslet and DiCaprio and the special effects in the film’s second half…

[read my entire “She the People” column at The Washington Post: Women on the Titanic, Real and Imagined]

Mika Hashikai, 37, mourns her parents, victims of the Japanese tsunami.

Videos of the Tohoku earthquake and tsunami in Japan on March 11, 2011: YouTube tsunami footage playlist.

Videos of music performed in tribute to the victims and survivors of the earthquake and tsunami: YouTube tribute playlist.

Along with the wedding dresses were pictures of food and lots of colorful, impractical shoes. Also, way too many platitudes (in helvetica font plastered on unremarkable photos) of some version of “Be nice” or “Believe in yourself.”

At first, Pinterest looked like a wasteland to me…

[read my entire “She the People” column at The Washington Post: Pinterest Is a Female Ghetto, But That's Not the Problem]