Judith Warner's 'Domestic Disturbances' TimesSelect blog-column grows increasingly, well, disturbing. Buckling under the stress of "two grade-parent cocktail parties, one all-school gala, a Spring Fling, three music recitals" and other trials, she offers this confession: "I have, there's no question, gone off my gourd." Luckily for her, colleague David Brooks is perfectly willing to be her ad-hoc therapist.

My two-doors-down office neighbor, David Brooks... had the misfortune to stop in the hallway right before school pickup time and ask how I was doing. 'I wake in the morning and go to bed at night stalked by a feeling of incipient failure!' I stopped hyperventilating long enough to almost scream. He blinked for a moment, impassively.

'Some people thrive on that,' he said. Yes, I thought, I've built an entire career in just that way.

Back away slowly, David, and make sure not to mention Michelle Slatalla's burgeoning encroachment on the 'insane mommy' beat.

End of (School) Year Frenzy [NYT]