Redux: Journalists Should Act More Like Scientists

It’s REDUX WEEK! Taking a break from writing, we’re choosing our favorite LWON posts from days of yore. My pick is from Christie and it regards the nature of bending and straightening the truth in journalism. The question of what to write in, what to leave out, and when to apply gentle literary pressure is […]

Stupid Things My Dog Has Done, Part 2. (How to De-Skunk A Dog)

Note: Read part 1 here. Last week, my dog Molly invited me to try a chemistry experiment. That’s right, she stuck her nose in a skunk’s butt. You can guess what happened next. “To fire, the skunk extrudes a pair of nozzles from its rear.” (Caution: this video is graphic. You cannot unsee it. Consider yourself warned.)

Go Occupy Those Forlorn Chairs

It’s summer, and I’ve been thinking of what poet Billy Collins called those, “forlorn chairs/though at one time it must have seemed/a good place to stop and do nothing for a while.” Even situated, as they usually are, to take in the view, it’s hard for those chairs to compete with the attention-grabbing distractions found […]

Snark week: Killer Cows!

Apparently there’s some television extravaganza going on this week that makes it seem as if the beach is a scary place where a shark could attack you at any moment. Don’t believe it. You want a dangerous place? I’ll show you a dangerous place. A farm. It’s not just the little roosters. If you’re worried […]

Postcards From IRL

A friend recently sent me a postcard from her overseas trip. The card reached me long after I’d seen her photographs on Facebook. By the time it arrived, she was back home in Washington DC. Still, I was delighted to receive the handwritten note. The thing about Facebook posts is that they’re broadcast to everyone. The postcard was […]

The Tyranny of Planned Obsolescence

The post has taken me entirely too much time to write. Not because I’m procrastinating or writing slowly, but because I’m being held hostage by the spinning beach ball of death. I bought my current iMac in early 2011, which means that enough time has elapsed that the Apple Care warranty I purchased with it […]

Last Word

May 5-9, 2015 It was another Mother’s Week here at LWON. LWON’s Motherhood series originated three years ago when Cassie shared her angst over whether or not to have a child. “I want to want a child,” she wrote. Back then, she didn’t — did she? Now her decision is made, and she’s still got […]

Three Photos of My Mother

One of my favorite people lost her mother last week, and my friend’s heart-breaking loss left me reflecting on my own mom and how much she means to me. I love my mother for more reasons than I can articulate in one small blog post, but three of my most cherished photos go a long way […]