How Do they Do it?

Random thought of the day: I've been getting Southern Living and Family Circle for free as a promo thing, and it's nice to have something easy to read... to get good ideas. Some of the op-ed pieces are really funny, too. But sometimes the authors really blast their neighbors, or family members, or even their own spouses, and I just wonder... do they not tell their families that they're writers? Do they honestly think that their mom doesn't read every thing they write? Or maybe they all use pen-names... I especially wonder this when at the end of the piece it says something like "so-and-so lives in Ritersville, GA, with her two children and a dog." I've thought this while reading memoirs, too. Do they just trust that the people who were so mean to them or with whom they so disagree would never pick up anything they'd write? Random, like I said... but I do wonder!