Although I spend a considerable chunk of my waking hours sitting cross-legged on my sofa, tapping out website and blog copy and devising content strategies on my laptop, I also regularly get out of my home office to speak at conferences and teach workshops. Usually, these speaking gigs are in interesting locations—New York City, Atlanta,…
Confession time: I am spoiled. For the past 17 years, I’ve lived in the rural-est of rural neighborhoods, down a road-less-traveled, dead-end gravel street, on 7.5 acres, surrounded by white pine woods and hay fields, and expanses of sky so wide-open, it seems as if I can breathe in all the constellations on…
“I’ve never met a color I didn’t love.” This phrase describes, in a nutshell, Rachel Shingleton’s original approach to design. A graphic and product designer, an interior stylist, and the blogger behind the popular Pencil Shavings Studio, Rachel is on a mission to “banish the beige” and make life—and everything in it—more vibrant and…
In November 2015, after a three-year string of heroin overdoses left 12 dead in Averill Park, New York, an article in the Albany Times-Union noted that overdoses in the state had more than doubled from 2008 to 2012, and hospital admissions for heroin and prescription opioids had increased 222 percent between 2004 and…
As a copywriter who has a decent digital presence, I get all manner of spammy offers through my website. Between the standard junk-mail pitches for attaining the elusive number 1 rank in Google search, growing my followers by the trillions in just thirty days, and boosting my income with Viagra sales, I’m seeing a…
In 2009, after reading Half the Sky: Turning Oppression into Opportunity for Women Worldwide by Nicholas Kristof and Sheryl WuDunn, lifelong theatre artist and educator Kristen van Ginhoven had a lightbulb moment. What if she could apply the same concept of supporting women’s rights through economic opportunity to the theatre? She founded WAM Theatre that…
I used to be somewhat indiscriminate about Indian food. Most Indian restaurants—even the ones with run-of-the-mill lunch buffets—passed muster, largely because their food, unlike what you find at a typical American lunch or dinner joint, had lots of flavor. As a vegetarian, I leaned toward classic meat-free dishes like biryani, pakoras, samosas, and malai…
This guest piece about love and loss has special resonance for me. Peter McLaughlin was a fine journalist and a good friend. Although there was almost a 20-year age difference between us, we were born on the same day and bonded immediately over a shared love of great writing, discussions that pinged from one idea…
In the days leading up to January 20, 2017, heretofore and henceforth and forevermore (at least in the annals of Il Cheeto) known as the National Inauguration Day of He of the Best Words and the Best People and the Best Ideas, the Really Terrific Ideas, many of us were mired in disappointment, anger, sadness,…
Although I’m mostly vegan, I’m not a picky eater—if it grew in the ground at some point, I’ll toss it with spices and other vegetables, throw it on the stove or in the oven, and see what results. I can count on exactly three fingers the plant-based ingredients I won’t shovel into my mouth,…