Communities provide and take away, two forms of power that reinforce and balance each other until they do not. Bigger communities, such as cities, states, or nations, provide opportunities to earn a living; infrastructure such as roads to get to work and the store; and mutual aid—firefighters save our homes…
“For too long, cookbooks were considered merely utilitarian and deeply gendered, written mostly by women to teach mostly female readers how to keep house, feed their family, and perhaps even nourish their marriage. But as we look back, especially at books that have stood the test of time…
Groucho Marx visited the wreckage of the Führerbunker, in East Berlin, in 1958 with his young daughter. The remains of the structure were broken and jagged but still 20-feet tall, as if the war was just over. Groucho climbed up and began to do “a frenetic Charleston,…
Fifteen years ago a drunk and high driver smashed into the car that Charles and his wife were traveling in. Charles was badly hurt, had reconstructive surgeries, and continues to have crippling headaches several days a week. Because he has been prescribed many drugs, which often fail over time, he…
“Every woman has a well-stocked arsenal of anger potentially useful against those oppressions, personal and institutional, which brought that anger into being.” –Audre Lord, keynote speech to the National Women’s Studies Association in 1981 Earlier this month, tennis star Serena Williams’ loss at the U.S.
He calls himself “One Rotten Tooth,” and is part of a new age punk movement known as “The Krusties,” modern-day nomads who travel state-to-state by railways.
In the dwindling hours of September 2nd, a fire broke out in Brazil’s Museu Nacional, one of the largest natural history museums in the world. The disaster was international news; 90 percent of the museum’s collection (some 20 million items) was lost in the blaze. This included many anthropological items…
In mid-September, I turn 40. There are plenty of memes about turning 40 that are pretty terrific, not to mention I have contracted pneumonia in my final days of 39. A dear friend offered to bring “birthday soup.” Nothing quite signals old age as much as birthday…
Hannah Gadsby’s 2018 standup special, Nanette, contains a brilliant trick that has nothing to do with the special’s title, which is merely the name of a love interest who did not work out.The trick is that Gadsby begins with a traditional standup routine then uses the occasion…
“Competence porn” was first coined by television and film screenwriter John Rogers in 2009. The evocative phrase addresses the innate pleasure some of us derive from watching truly exceptional people do things impressively, especially in television and film. I stumbled upon the idea of competence porn after reading one of …