The Keys to Your Kingdom
When we bought our house, now well over 100 years old, I held the antique keys in my hand, loving their weight and ornate design, sure there was an energy swirled into those oxidized molecules.
By Jeannette Cooperman
How to Become a Mentalist
The mentalist’s tone matters: an offhand, “Oh, and did you want to change that?” is less likely to elicit a change than a slow dangling of the temptation to change the card.
Fart Proudly
Why did people act like passing gas was rude? (And why did they use “pass,” the verb of death?) Bodies have air inside, sometimes too much air. It is not our fault that this air smells like a rind of Limburger dunked in a sewer.
Strangers Still Rescue Us
I was too late. A young woman had run at top speed from the back of the café and was already outside, capably administering the Heimlich on a guy who was a foot taller and fighting to resist her. While I was busy giving up on the next generation, they had been responding to the problem.
How to Get Our Attention Back
We can only reclaim our attentional power with “the carving out of spaces in the world where it can survive and thrive.” Physical spaces, designed with that purpose in mind. Psychological spaces, within us and between us.
Unleashed
Dogs need structure; without it, they run amok. We humans are convinced that we crave freedom and self-determination, but we run amok, too.
The Bias in My Bedtime Reading
Escapism brings up biases I had not reckoned with. Why should I be so resistant? I am not picky about the relationships in my mysteries: a hard-won romance is a lovely distraction from murder, but a witty and well-seasoned marriage is just as much fun, as is the glum frustration of someone who is lonely but at least has buddies at work to commiserate with.
Wounds Heal Faster When—Covered?
Scabs were cool. And until this weekend, I believed they were necessary.
Lefty Loosy, Righty Tighty
Because we were vast, spacious, and buffered by oceans, we were relatively safe from the encroachments and surprise attacks of conventional warfare. We made it fashionable to question authority and reject hierarchy. Other countries, squeezed tight and facing constant threats, developed rigid sets of rules and norms that kept their population cohesive and, well, safe.
Dancing Alone
This is silent disco. Forgive me if it feels like a metaphor. It is not new: The first headphone concert was by the Flaming Lips in Dallas in 1999, although they also used a normal speaker so the sound could be felt—a nicety soon dropped.
Wildlife Wrangler, Stunt Man, Falconer, Sage
Hollywood is a side gig; mainly, Michael Beran rescues wild animals, those he keeps for education and entertainment, and meanwhile rescuing people from wild animals. Now he joins Rocky, a Eurasian eagle-owl of magnificent proportions with a diva’s temperament, and the bird flaps huge wings in token protest.
Elvis Got Slicker, and Graceland Has, Too
Elvis got slicker over time. Graceland, the home Elvis proudly bought when he was twenty-two years old, finished with his first movie, presenting the key to his beloved momma with a flourish—has gotten slicker, too.