On paper, that is — I’ve been doing orientation for grad school these last few days. Online, of course. One class module discussed resources for research when writing papers. The school library was offered, mostly as a portal for online access to peer-reviewed papers and journals, not so much a stately brick-and-mortar building full of…

Especially in local or primary elections — they matter as much if not more than the “big” ones — I used to think primary and mid-term elections didn’t matter much. Either we were living in different times, I was naive, or both. These days, public discourse has devolved completely. It’s the blame game. The despise the other party game. The block them even if they are doing good for…

And I won’t be the last, but no, I don’t think it does — Though I generally don’t read or write articles about Medium, now and then I can’t help myself. I watch my stats. I observe a phenomenon, I grow curious, I analyze, and I make a conclusion that is my truth. …

We are her pull-on pants and we couldn’t be happier — Her name is G. My name is Pinny; I’m a pair of navy blue pinstriped Krazy Larry pull-on dress pants. It will be two years this September since G found me on Poshmark while searching for “pull-on dress pants,” filtered for “new with tags,” “my sizes,” “straight leg,” and “solid…

I never met a face I couldn’t forget — It is just me, or is it harder to recognize people these days? I’ve always struggled with faces, but I think even people who never had this problem before might now find themselves saying, “Hi [whoever the hell you are — give me a clue here so I don’t embarrass…

Fixing it may be easier than you think — More around the middle I’ve been feeling atypically blubbery these past four or five days. To clarify, not blubbery as in ugly-crying jags complete with snot and pufferfish eyes. Blubbery as in fluffy around the middle. Pillsbury dough-boyish. Michelin Man-esque. Stay-Puft marshmallow-like. Apple-shaped. Zaftig. Rubenesque. To be clear, there is nothing wrong with these…

Does the year we were born define us? Maybe a little. Maybe a lot. Maybe not at all. It depends what happens after. — Who are Boomers? Boomers are the generation born between 1946 and 1964, the so-called “baby boom” that happened after World War II ended and military service people, predominantly men, came home, got degrees and/or jobs, got married, bought homes, and raised families. During the baby boom, between three and four million babies were…

A tale from the dog bed, by Jessie A. — Tales from the Dog Bed is a series by Jessie A., an 8-pound big-eared big-hearted terrier mix. Jessie loves to talk about her lives. Not just her life today, in Santa Monica, but also her past lives, which she remembers as though they were yesterday. …

Looking at you, gorgeous sweet carby thing — I’ve lived long enough to learn a few lessons, but there are still so many lessons I haven’t lived long enough to learn. Like how to take care of a body I’ve owned longer than anything else in this world. Yesterday morning I had no energy At lunchtime, I was on the phone with my husband…