katha pollitt has this charming way of referring to her live-in-[male]-lover as The Last Marxist. or is he her husband? i think not, given that she is openly divorced and she never makes reference to any kind of legal bond between them. well, who am i to assume. anyway, the L.M. (as she often refers to him) is occasionally cited or discussed as an example/exemplar of critical social thought and values. but not adoringly--she doesn't hesitate to criticize and disagree with him. and she enlists him to do research for her! in a column on the movie "The People vs. Larry Flynt," she sends him out into the Upper East Side night to purchase a copy of Hustler.

it's wistful, then, the way i admire her life and their relationship. intellectual, domestic, drawing on the strengths of both. (what newsstand would sell a copy of Hustler to a middle-aged woman? maybe downtown but certainly not uptown.) a true partnership. diane said a few weeks ago that the key to working through present existential angst was to begin envisioning a 'good life' as only i could live it. here is a worthy possibility.