My friend Kate and I use U2 concerts as an excuse to travel and see new cities. But earlier this summer the band had scheduled a couple of nights here in Washington, D.C., so we decided to spend the days before the first concert taking part in the fan-run general admission line. Fans show up […]
Miscellaneous
September must be my preferred house-cleaning time, because once again, I was purging things in closets this weekend. And like last year, when I wrote this post, I found a disgusting amount of silverfish. (I feel a little better that it’s not just me: even my very organized and clean neighbor says she finds them […]
This post originally ran on April 23, 2015. But people are still developing maggot infestations. Yes, even here in the US. So it’s still relevant. Read on and be disgusted all over again. I’m not the kind of girl who ordinarily irons her underwear. But two weeks ago I found myself hunched over a flimsy wooden […]
August 27 – 31, 2018, the week in which “regolith” appears not once but twice. The People of LWON, bug-lovers every one of them, are nevertheless united in their loathing of sprickets. They share their feelings but have murder on their minds. Rose doesn’t live in NYC any more bet when she did, she calmed […]
For the past two years, I have been following the voyage of OSIRIS-REx, a spacecraft headed to an asteroid called Bennu. Bennu is important for at least four reasons: Local space history may recorded in its rocks, which are about as old as the formation of the solar system. It is carbon-rich and scientists think […]
Read Part 1 of this story Eventually, Milon Tusk escaped the smart home of the unhappily deceased Dieter Peel. This process had not been straightforward. Everything inside the fortified compound was voice-controlled, including windows and doors. He had tried imitating Peel’s voice, jimmying the locks, and at one low point, throwing a chair at the […]
This post is now over two years old but the channel is still active and the conversation about surveillance hasn’t gone away (understatement of the year?). I no longer live in New York City, but I’m still watching you, New Yorkers. __ I recently wrote a story for The Atlantic about a question that I […]
August 20-24, 2018 Remember last year when, for a moment, we took a break from earthly concerns and looked up at the sky? Helen returns to her eclipse post from last year, written from the backseat of a car during the I-95 traffic jam. The sun’s last rays shone bright, then winked out, and there […]
