Why are Americans, descended from revolutionaries who fled and defeated the British, so enamored with the British monarchy? Why are Commonwealth subjects all over the world mourning the death of Queen Elizabeth II? The possibility of real-life fairytales coming true? The schadenfreude of high-profile scandal when they don’t? Or because…

“I eloped during the Russian Revolution,” the old woman told me, smiling. “I was 16.” “I have so many stories to tell you.” I was 16 myself when this woman I didn’t know reached out and took me by the arm. But I never listened. I was a teenager waitressing…

Whose pain counts? — I always appreciated Jeff Foxworthy’s good-natured self-deprecation. Although I was never a fan of his “You might be a redneck if” franchise, he was the gentler breed of comedians who looked inward instead of pointing and laughing outward. But with fresh hysterical comedians like Alingon Mitra, Daniel Weingarten, Nore Davis…

Why are some refugees terrorized by border patrol on horseback¹ while other refugees are welcomed into private homes with open arms? Syrian, Yemeni, Afghan, North African, Mexican, and Central American refugees were not and are not being globally welcomed, embraced, and championed as Ukrainian refugees are all over the world…

“The saddest aspect of life right now is that science gathers knowledge faster than society gathers wisdom.” — Isaac Asimov A foul-mouthed Montana farmboy very likely saved your life. What he grew up to do with chicken leukemia, monkey kidneys, and mouse brains in blenders is the reason millions of…

My dad is a drummer. Of course he has been the heartbeat of my life, a metronome keeping time, the metric against which all men are measured. Nothing is more important in this world to him than my little sister and me. That’s an extraordinary thing to be, to even…

Russell Simmons knew he had “made it” when he could procure and consume human beings like drugs — Russell Simmons isn’t the first celebrity to consume women like commodities or to equate that lifestyle with success. He’s definitely not the first man to laugh about it and remember it fondly. And he won’t be the last. When “Christmas Rappin’” propelled Kurtis Blow and Simmons to international success, Simmons…

Reading Tom Robbins makes me want to write less. Maybe even quit. I don’t know why he wears sunglasses all the time like an 80s actor or a 60s singer. Or why he seems to blithely delight in the #MenWritingWomen tropes, anachronisms, and deplorable underage sexualization that land even a…

The Economics of Consent vs. Opportunity — An estimated 31 million Americans are projected to bet $7.6 billion on the Super Bowl this weekend on anything from how long the national anthem will be sung to the color of the Gatorade dumped on the winning coach. Money and football are as red, white, and blue as the…