Role Model: Jean Kerr

After "Mommy Wears Prada" came out last summer, I was approached by several literary agents wondering if I had a book.

"You could be Erma Bombeck," one told me, in a gross (if flattering) oversell.

"No disrespect to Mrs. Bombeck," I said, "but I'd rather be Jean Kerr."

Actually, I'd rather just be me. But if you haven't heard of Kerr, or read her book, Please Don't Eat the Daisies, you're missing out on some very smart and funny writing about motherhood. Kerr was cultured without posing, witty without snarking, warm without being saccharine. If Mommy blogs had been invented sixty years ago, she'd have been the Queen.