On Tuesday night, authorities reported that a mass shooter had gone on a rampage in the Atlanta area, targeting three massage parlors and spas in the process. The shooter, Robert Long, killed eight people, including six Asian women. The news was met with an outpouring of grief on social media …
Read More »Meghan Markle's Suicidal Thoughts While Pregnant Shed Light on Silent Public Health Crisis
Throughout her career as a public figure, many royal family watchers have drawn parallels between Meghan Markle and Princess Diana, the mother of Markle’s husband, Prince Harry. Some of these comparisons are largely superficial (both women are glamorous, well-dressed, and omnipresent tabloid fixtures), but the bulk of the similarities stem …
Read More »'I Never Was a Beat Poet': Lawrence Ferlinghetti's Musical Vision
Lawrence Ferlinghetti, who died last month just 30 days shy of his 102nd birthday, lived a life of fascinating contradictions. From a Dickensian childhood — his father died before he was born, and his mother was institutionalized when he was only two years old — Ferlinghetti eventually landed with wealthy …
Read More »Mr. Potato Head Is Now Gender Neutral and Right-Wing Trolls Are Losing It
UPDATE, 5:00 p.m.: After the uproar over the rebranding, Hasbro clarified that the Mr. and Mrs. Potato Head dolls will still be available under the gender-neutral Potato Head brand. They have also introduced a box set that includes multiple potatoes and accessories so kids can build a family of potatoes …
Read More »In Los Angeles, Pandemic Life Depends on Where You Live
Dr. Nicole Van Groningen is exhausted. A hospitalist and assistant professor at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center in Los Angeles, Van Groningen has been on the front lines fighting Covid-19 for 11 months, and as L.A. comes down from its worst surge in cases since the pandemic began, she’d spent the final …
Read More »We're All Missing the Point of the Armie Hammer Cannibalism Scandal
Last week, unverified screengrabs of extremely lurid text messages allegedly sent by actor Armie Hammer between 2016 and 2020 were posted by the Instagram account @houseofeffie, which also compiled nearly half a dozen examples of women who claimed to have had an affair with Hammer while he was married. Some …
Read More »Lisa M. Montgomery, Sole Woman on Death Row, Executed
Early Wednesday, the Trump administration executed the only woman on federal death row, Lisa M. Montgomery, age 52. She was the first woman put to death in almost 70 years, according to The New York Times, the last two being Bonnie Brown Heady for kidnapping and murder and Ethel Rosenberg …
Read More »The Missing Piece of the D.B. Cooper Story
I t was November 24th, 1971, the day before Thanksgiving, and Tina Mucklow and her Twin Cities-based flight crew — three flight attendants and three pilots — were beginning what should have been four or five days of flying, working through the holiday. Mucklow was the newest hire and lowest-ranked …
Read More »Facebook, Instagram Will Block Trump From Their Platforms Indefinitely
Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg has announced that Facebook and Instagram will be blocking Donald Trump from using their platforms indefinitely, following the president’s incitement of a mob of his supporters storming the Capitol Building on Wednesday. The news follows Facebook’s decision to remove a video message posted by Trump during …
Read More »RS Recommends: Heidi Schreck's 'What the Constitution Means to Me'
Ten minutes into What the Constitution Means to Me, writer and performer Heidi Schreck is teaching the audience the word “penumbra”: “Here I am, standing in the light,” Schreck says from the front of the stage, “and there you are, sitting in the darkness. This space between us, this space …
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