Funny Life with Lisa Kogan

Biographies are boring; at least biographies of those of us who haven’t done anything special to change the world. Lisa Kogan, a columnist for O Magazine, writes about her life but with a humorous touch that anyone would enjoy. Not to mention, she writes on day-to-day issues for parents, cooks, and individuals everywhere.

Kogan is a 49-year-old single mother who lives in New York City. She started writing as a columnist for small magazines such as 7 Days, Mirabella and Egg magazines – all of which went out of business. She then wrote for Elle magazine for seven years. This gave her enough background to be picked up by Oprah Winfrey for her O Magazine which launched in 2000.

Besides writing for O Magazine, Kogan also wrote a book called Someone Will Be With You Shortly. The book discusses issues big such as raising children by yourself while having to deal with the other parent who lives thousands of miles away, and issues that are small, like selecting the right kind of deli meats.

Kogan’s self-deprecating humor and deep appreciation for what really matters has made her popular among O Magazine’s general readers. She believes that everyone is entitled to having a great mattress, comfortable shoes, and a very smart psychiatrist. She also searches around the globe for the decent tomato; one she believes hasn’t been grown since 1963.

Working for O Magazine, she is the writer-at-large. The magazine has approximately two million readers. Although her ultimate boss is Oprah herself, she gets most of her direction from the editor-at-large Gayle King. O Magazine has a large female readership which makes Kogan’s writing more geared towards issues that relate to women.

She’s a self proclaimed busy body, stating that she works way too hard and doesn’t get enough sleep. The humor in her columns is so original that it seems like it comes to her naturally. Some of the topics she has written about are Everything You Want To Know About Sex Toys (calling on a sex-toy-expert to help her with this one), Love & Relationships, and What Makes People Happy. Kogan also maintains a blog which is not very popular and does not have more than one posting on it.

Here are some hilarious quotes from Kogan’s columns:

I'd like to say a few words to every crabby traveler who responds with disgust whenever a baby cries on an airplane. Perhaps you don't know how babies work, but there's been a study, and it turns out that giving a 4-month-old the stink eye doesn't actually accomplish anything. Either have a little compassion or a little Ambien.

Allow me to demystify the entire real estate market for you: Gracious means ridiculously small. Quaint means a total wreck and ridiculously small. Spacious, airy, luxurious, and grand all mean ridiculously small.

Any shrink worth his or her salt will tell you that it is a mistake to think of your colleagues as family. But what is a family if not a group of people who care about you and irritate you and show up for cake on your birthday and look at pictures of your kid even when they don't feel like it and think it wouldn't kill you to put on a little makeup and a pair of heels once in a while?

So if you’re looking for a good read that will teach you a thing or two about cooking fish, try reading the columns written by Lisa Kogan. A humorous writer with a lot of experience – she won’t disappoint you as a reader.