Melting Pot by Anna Quindlen

"Sometimes THE BABY SLIPS OUT WITH THE BATH WATER" is what type of literary tool?

Idiom

"We live in a pressure cooker: oil and water, us and them" is what type of literary tool?

Metaphor

Where was Quindlen's first apartment?

New York

Identify the different groups in Quindlen's neighborhood.

New arrivals, long-time residents, children of immigrants, families, and singles

What do the letters in the weekly tabloid suggest?

That everybody hates everybody else.

How does Quindlen find a way to get along with the different groups?

She finds some aspect of almost each member to relate to - the older immigrants remind her of her grandparents and she is a young professional.

How is Anna Quindlen both "one of them" and "one of us"?

She is one of them because she is one of the young professionals moving into the neighborhood, but she is one of us because she is of immigrant Italian descent.

What does this phrase reveal about Quindlen's neighborhood - "about a third of the people in the neighborhood think of squid as calamari, about a third think of it as sushi, and about a third think of it as bait"?

The neighborhood is ethnically diverse.

What does Quindlen mean by "on a macro level we do," but "on a micro level" we get along?

The old immigrants do not get along with the new ones, but family to family they seem to get along because their children play together.

How were the people in this neighborhood in conflict with one another?

They come from different backgrounds and have different attitudes and beliefs.

What experience do most of the residents share?

They have seen lots of changes in their neighborhood.