Guest Post: The Art of Losing Paperclips

Not long ago, walking past some court buildings with a friend, I kept stopping to pick up paper clips. Besides the usual little Gem clips, like ACCO Brand Trombones No 1, I found a black-and-silver binder clip and a rare angel-shaped “ideal clamp”–all of them no doubt carelessly dropped by lawyers who once used them […]

Guest Post: the Truth about Cats & Dogs

Dogs have owners; cats have staff. Dogs are man’s best friend; cats are man’s best frenemy. Dogs come when called; cats take a message and get back to you. As long as we’ve had dogs and cats, we’ve had dogs versus cats. Dogs are obedient, loyal, and love unconditionally. Cats are obstinate, fickle, and love […]

Guest Post: The Three Quarks of Life

This is a tough post to read, tougher to look at.  Some background might help. In 1993 Chris Arnade got a PhD in physics and then went to work on Wall Street.  Starting in 2007, Chris started taking long walks with his camera through New York City, where he found a lot of ambiguity and unsolvable […]

Off Our Meds: The Theater of Medicine

This week LWON presents “Off Our Meds,” an examination of some scary issues in medicine. We won’t resort to fear mongering, because we don’t have to. Medicine is scary enough as it is. I still remember my first trip to the doctor. I was 18 years old and doubled over in terrible stomach pain. And when I […]

Only I

Smokey Bear Celebrates 70th Birthday and Reminds Americans … “Only You Can Prevent Wildfires”                                 —  Ad Council press release, August 7, 2014 Why me? Why am I the only one who can prevent wildfires? Forest fires were burden enough. I’ve […]

Zoned Out

There a few moments in your childhood that stick with you the rest of your life. I don’t mean first kiss, prom, or that time you punched Kelly Weir in the stomach for stealing your bike (believe me, he had it coming). Those are big moments. I mean the little things – the things that […]