Earlier this month, Ernestine Gilbreth Carey passed away. Here is an obituary. She was famous for authoring the memoir, Cheaper by the Dozen, about her parents who were obsessed with ‘time and motion’ studies and efficiency. And a good thing too: they had 12 children. The only thing the two movies have in common with the book is that there are 12 kids. The book is far richer and, in many ways, fare more amusing. I mean when you hear a family with a couple of cases of tonsillitis have their house turned into an operation factory — “might as well get them all done at once including those without any problems” — it is nothing but compelling. I can highly recommend this book. It is timeless.