In Stitches

Anyone who still says feminists don't have a sense of humor should peruse the hilarious and often insightful pieces assembled here by Kaufman (coeditor of Pulling Our Own Strings ). Teresa Bloomingdale discusses one of the less publicized joys of new-motherhood: sleep deprivation. Alice Kahn offers a test men can take to see if they're genuine NSMs--New Sensitive Males, a blend of ``miso and macho in one man.'' Dave Barry reveals why housework can't be entrusted to men: they'd ``hire secretaries and buy computers and fly off to housework conferences in Bermuda''--but never clean anything. Kaufman (writing as Hazel Houlihingle) explores the wonderland of ``medical logic'' that lets doctors evade responsibility for their actions. Barbara Ehrenreich explodes the ``man shortage'' myth, noting places where there's a surplus of males, such as the Senate, Harvard (853 tenured men to 45 tenured women) and U.S. prisons. On the language of clothes, Alison Lurie notes that we can lie or try to tell the truth, but ``unless we are naked and bald, it is impossible to be silent.'' Illustrations not seen by PW. (July)