Guest Post: Bright Buggies, Bright Futures

In rural central Pennsylvania, in a long narrow valley originally named Kishacoquillas, now nicknamed Big Valley, the Amish buggies are not black and grey but white and yellow. You might think these unusually bright buggies might signal a more laid-back Amish population, but it’s just the opposite: the two sects represented by the two buggy […]

Your birthday is bad for you

I know a guy who doesn’t have a birthday. Andy* was born in the Moroccan desert. His parents were nomads. There were no smartphones in the 1960s and a nomadic tribe didn’t have much use for the Gregorian calendar. And when it came to recalling the exact day and month of Andy’s birth, there were […]

Redux: The Last Battle

This post first appeared more than four years ago, and I wish I could tell you the state of Alzheimer’s treatment had progressed significantly since then. Mostly the change has been for the worse–baby boomers are falling victim to the disease en masse. But Alzheimer’s or no, the words of Sister Mary (see below) are […]

I Have a Cold

I’m writing this to be the voice of all the people who have had this winter’s ratty cold and have not written blog posts about it.   I’ve had it twice now, so aside from worrying about what that says about my fundamentals, I feel qualified to testify.  I testified once before here but this time […]

Impossible Feats of Strength and Endurance

On January 9, I went to the gym and did a chin up. Here’s what should have happened next: The clouds should have parted to allow a single beam of light to cast its golden glow on my body. Winged trumpeters should have surrounded me. Confetti should have rained from the sky. A flash mob […]

Ice skating: an overanalysis

 “This is a nightmare,” I said to my boyfriend as we walked up to a skating rink in El Dorado Hills, California. The “Family Friendly Winter Wonderland” was in a shopping mall surrounded by faux-Tuscan mansions, and the rink was packed from barrier to barrier. Pete promised peppermint bark and beer if I stuck with […]

Redux: Until the Bitter End

My grandma died yesterday morning. She did not go quickly or painlessly. It was not what most would consider a good death. Difficult, heart-wrenching decisions were made. I want nothing more than to write about how her life ended — about how the system failed her, about how the system is failing so many people […]

Redux: Sleep Aids

The holidays can be stressful. So stressful you lose sleep. Maybe you need Placidyl. This post originally ran February 5, 2013. Ahh, the 1960s. A simpler time when women wore pant-skirts and insomnia could be cured by the soothing sounds of Liadov’s Musical Snuff Box. Well, not quite. Flip open this album and you’ll find a two-page […]