1. My teenage niece, after listening to my Motown's Greatest Hits CD during a six-hour road trip, asked, "Why do they keep calling every woman baby?" 2. Good question. 3. In this slightly more enlightened era, what are the acceptable terms of romantic endearment that men can say to women? 4. "Baby" is way down on the list. 5. And yet, "Nobody puts Baby in the corner," from Dirty Dancing is one of the more romantic movie lines of my generation. 6. But I saw Dirty Dancing soon after a female electrical worker disappeared from a rural power station near my reservation. 7. "Signs of a struggle," read the newspaper story. 8. Nearly twenty-five years later, it's a cold case. I search for the latest news. Nobody knows what happened. Her husband and co-workers are still mourning. 9. But the husband has also remarried and had children. His says his new wife has helped him grieve and recover. 10. Good for him. Good for her. 11. The world is equal parts magic and loss. 12. I have this recurring nightmare where huge men break into our house. While defending my wife and children, I tear the invaders into pieces and eat them. 13. Jungians would suggest that I am metaphorically eating myself. 14. Even though some of us believe otherwise, men love violently.