We Owe Our Lives to Some Bugs that Ate the Sun

For ten points, name the central event in the history of life.

Ten Rules for the New Administration…from the Emus

In the first official inter-species war on record...the emus won. Our new president might want to heed their advice.

Pathologize Hardship, and the Rest of Us Are Off the Hook

We have been made to feel fragile. But life is hard and precarious, and that is not an automatic risk for mental illness.

The Headband Makes a Comeback

Trained to respect a look that requires, then conceals, significant effort, women learned to mistrust anything that was just plain easy.

The Age of Subtraction

She bought Stephen Sondheim a bottle of the best gin--then saw him pouring white wine. This was, they sighed, the Age of Subtraction.

The Mouse That…Squeaked

I call out the list of what not to feed a mouse. No rhubarb. No raisins or onions, no fizzy bubbles, no caffeine. Definitely no booze. Which is a shame, because I bet she would be even cuter tipsy.

Language Can Stop Us from Loving the World

“It is impossible to prefigure the salvation of the world in the same language by which the world has been dismembered and defaced.”

The Sexual Fantasies Gillian Anderson Collected Will Break Your Heart

I expected women's fantasies to be sensuous and subtle .... Instead they made me want to weep.

What Happens When an AI Jesus Steps in for the Clergy

A young pastor said, “I was positively surprised how well it worked.” All he missed, he added, was emotion and spirituality.

Flat Out of Luck

Listening to a brilliant man who is living in his car, I have, in rapid succession, every reaction I deplore in others.

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