When life throws a mean fast pitch at my fragile little hands, I typically catch it and laugh off the burn. But as a woman nearing a certain very plump and meaningful age, my sense of humor is struggling to hold on. Here’s why. This is a list (from a randomly selected lady blog called Healthline) […]
This holiday week was filled with good cheer! Oh, wait, this is LWON. But don’t worry, it wasn’t all fit for a Scrooge. First, we gave you a terrific list of things to watch with our traditional TV/Movie binge list. Don’t blame us if you’re still on […]
It’s the holiday season so, of course, I’ve been binge-watching The Walking Dead. Something about this time of year makes the still-unbitten characters’ lives appealing. Minus the blood-oozing zombies, life is uncluttered. There are no commercials screaming that Santa’s sale on Christmas socks ends Friday, no light displays at the mall flashing to the beat of Grandma Got […]
A couple of weeks ago, my 20-year-old cousin put his father’s service revolver to his head and pulled the trigger. His parents and one of his brothers were home at the time. They heard the shot and ran to his room. His mother and brother tried to stop the bleeding while his father performed CPR. […]
Exactly 10 years ago today, I got one of those calls we all dread. My mom had cancer, a stage-4 brain tumor, the kind that seems to pop up out of nowhere fully formed and beyond repair. I was standing in my kitchen when I heard the news, and I remember dropping the phone as I […]
November 9-13 This week, guest poster Soren Wheeler shares why the chaos and failure inherent in science should be embraced in science education. In a dispatch from China, I offer a glimpse into the fieldwork that, despite the roaches, makes my heart go pitter-pat. Craig Childs exposes a secret of the cracked and desolate Atacama Desert: It comes, gloriously, to life. During this week of Veteran’s […]
Sometimes, while out on the job, I have to pinch myself and think, ‘hold on to this moment.’ Because the moments that make up my workday can be truly fabulous. Here’s what last week’s pinch was for: I was squatting on the ground at the Bifengxia panda base in central China, on a cloudy but pleasantly […]
When we were kids, my brother was the sneezer of all sneezers. There was never just one, or even two or three. It was always 17. No lie. Each sneeze began with this strange little sucking in of air, a pause, and then from his bent body and contorted face flew ah-YESH-ah! Seventeen times. He […]