Essays and Funny Stuff
Gloucester Girls: What To Expect the First Year
, Nov. 17, 2008
Gloucester girls, pregnancy pact, breastfeeding, attachment parenting
New teen mother Michelle B., 17, this morning delivered another blow to the endangered “pregnancy pact” among Gloucester girls when she refused to breastfeed her infant son in the high school cafeteria.
Outbound
Brain,Child, Spring 08
parenting, adolescence, Greyhound bus rides
"It's an adventure," I told him. "If we hate it, it's just one day lost out of our lives, and we'll never do it again."
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Feature Articles
Soccer Mom Loses Her Kick
Brain,Child, Fall 2007
Filed in: parenting, politics, Soccer Mom
Starved after decades on the sound-bite diet, can mothers get some meat from politicians in '08?
Treasured Museums North of Boston
June, 2007
In Boston for the Edward Hopper show? Stay on the breezy, beachy North Shore and take in a trio of less-trafficked museum gems
Thank God It’s Monday
Child Magazine, May 2007
Filed in: parenting, popular culture
Housework, yard work, paperwork, children's sports, one-on-one-with-each-child time, family suppers, long-postponed sexual relations--all crammed into one out-of-control weekend.
What Are Video Games Turning Us Into?
The Boston Globe Magazine, February 20, 2005
Filed in: video games, pop culture
The thing wasn't in the house 10 days before he was pushing the boundaries on his one-hour-a-day limit and begging for teen-rated games ("May contain violent content, mild or strong language, and/or suggestive themes").
Sod. Spray. Water. Mow.
The Boston Globe Magazine, May 9, 2004
Filed in: environment, pop culture
Each year, we spend more and more money dumping more and more chemicals onto lawns we use less and less. All this activity might seem quaintly nostalgic, like sprinkling the bedsheets with lavender water, if we weren't trashing the environment as we go.
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Technology and Business
Deleting Your Digital Past—For Good
Computerworld, Nov. 17, 2008
digital footprint, Internet privacy, Computerworld
As time goes by, more of us are being tailed by some little thing out there on the Web, an awful bit that emerges when someone Googles our names, a black mark that we'd like to erase before a colleague or a prospective employer sees it.
Prize Winner! 2008 Eddie Gold Award! Asperger’s and IT: Dark Secret or Open Secret?
Computerworld, April 2, 2008
computers, technology, Asperger's, autism
Asperger's Syndrome has been a part of IT for as long as there's been IT. So why aren't we doing better by the Aspies among us?
Should You Buy an iPhone This Holiday Season?
Computerworld, Nov. 29, 2007
computers, technology, iPhone, internet, the middle ages, the way we live now
The iPhone is the Tickle Me Elmo of this year's shopping season. Should you cave in and buy one or stay strong and wait 'til later (or never)?
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I started out my work life as an editor. I still edit, and I still love it. If you’ve got something that needs a little spit and polish (or maybe some slash and burn?), drop me a line.
“As an editor, Tracy is one of the best in the business. Her attention to detail, her ability to turn mush into magic while preserving the author’s voice, sets her apart from the pack.”
Rob O’Regan, 822 Media LLC, PC Week, CMO
“I trust Tracy with our writers’ work because I know she’ll elicit the best results from them. In her hands, adequate writing becomes good and good writing becomes great.”
Stephanie Wilkinson, Editor, Brain,Child
Long ago in a galaxy far away I used to have an office job—panty hose, yearly salary reviews, cake in the conference room, the whole corporate thing. If you’d like to see my life rendered in a straight-up traditional resume format, read on.
This is my standard boilerplate “About the Author” blurb:
Tracy Mayor has published essays and articles in The Boston Globe Magazine, Boston Magazine, The Improper Bostonian, Child Magazine, Writer’s Digest, Brain,Child, Fitness, and on Salon.com. She is the recipient of a 2003 Pushcart Prize for essay. She writes frequently on business, management and technology for Computerworld, CIO Magazine, Electronic Business and many other high-tech publications and was formerly an editor at Lotus Magazine, PC Week, and Microcomputing.
Other than that, you don’t need to read too far into my essays to figure out I’m a white het mom who lives north of Boston with two sons and one husband. Also we have a crazy-ass dog, though that situation has not yet been addressed in print. If you have any tips on how to handle a beagle mix, I’m all ears.