Daniela V Gitlin MD

In honor of the upcoming Erma Bombeck Writers Workshop at the end of March, 2026, I’ve brought this thank you letter from Bon Mot out of mothballs, as it still has quite a bit of wear left in it. Enjoy.

Dear Erma Bombeck Writers Workshop (EBWW) 2020:

Thank you inviting us to attend this year’s workshop and for choosing Bon Mot as your Personal Moniker Shopper. We appreciate the opportunity to help you choose the Descriptor that best accentuates your positives.

We spent the weekend browsing the hangers in your word closets in #virtualErma2020 and private facebook group. Using proprietary algorithms, we culled the following affectionate monikers in use by attendees for further analysis:

I wrote Doorknob Bombshells in Therapy for clinicians, but the core premise—the power of the deadline—works for creatives as well. In this interview, Suzette and I discuss the different and competing functions of the right and left hemispheres of the brain and how they impact therapy and creative work.

The Babylonians (circa 2000 BCE), the ancient Egyptians and early Romans all celebrated the new year at the spring equinox, which makes so much sense. The days warm and lengthen. Birdsong sweetens the morning air and my coffee. Crocuses push up energetically through banked snow. The bright spring sun, despite the cold, causes a surge of happiness and energy to rise through me like sap. I become ambitious, new resolutions and plans surging forth organically. And while achieving all my resolutions in the year I make them is unlikely, still, the chance of achieving some of them is good to very good because… energy.

I don’t know about you but my energy level from December through March is low to non-existent.

I look at this iconic painting of the iconic white American family sitting at table celebrating that most American of holidays, Thanksgiving—Ma at the head, eye drawn to the huge roasted turkey on an oval platter that she’s bending to place on the table; Pa, black-suited, standing behind, not helping her—and think to myself: only a man could have painted this image, a man who never once hosted a large gathering; or roasted, carved and served a whole turkey.

How do I know?