Features and articles about real life.
Never before have there been so many things to be afraid of, a situation that has kept researchers busy compiling catalogues to keep up with the new fears. They range from the tragic (philophobia, fear of love) to the bizarre (consecotaleophobia, fear of chopsticks). Basically, if you can name it, someone is phobic about it. […]
Continue ReadingA new wave of slang collectors are trying to keep up with language as it evolves. As an Oregon high schooler might say: dankidy! A few months ago David Turnbull, 37, of Portland, Ore., used the term “California car pool” in an online exchange with a colleague, who didn’t know what he meant. Turnbull had […]
Continue ReadingIn most states, drivers must prove they’re legally in the country to get a license. But tightening requirements make it impossible for even some legal immigrants to get behind the wheel. Carolina Ortiz moved from Buenos Aires to Austin, Texas, in October of 2007, and she could hardly wait to explore the city, meet new […]
Continue ReadingResearchers at the Williams Institute at UCLA found a large income gap between same-sex couples and married heterosexuals – even more pronounced among non-white gays and lesbians, who make up 20% of same-sex parents. In the summer of 2004 Della Nagle and Ruth Pinkham dropped their kids off at summer camp, hopped on a flight […]
Continue ReadingHundreds of evangelical Christians who believe in polygamy have set up Web sites to help couples find a few extra wives. Albert Morrison is a religious man. He prays, he reads the Bible and says he has a deep connection with Jesus. It is this devotion that helps explain why Albert and his wife, Sarah, […]
Continue ReadingWhen a woman came to Damien Deeds’ Manhattan tattoo parlor last year with a five-inch perforated keloid scar across her shoulder blade, he saw a creative opportunity. Tatttooist Damien Deeds created a butterfly around his customer’s keloid scar. (Courtesy of Damien Deeds) Jane Fox had her mastectomy scar incorporated into a skeletal lizard design. (Courtesy […]
Continue ReadingHyphenating a surname at marriage is no longer the powerful feminist statement it once was. The hyphen’s moment has passed… Hyphenation may be the most egalitarian approach to surnames, yet like so many other trends popularized in the ’70s and ’80s, it hasn’t aged well. As women saddled with hyphenates face their own naming decisions, […]
Continue ReadingWhether on display in a museum or the shoe-box creations of students, dioramas have sparked imaginations, as well as a debate… A book that sells for $1,250? Yes, that’s the cost of Walton Ford’s “Pancha Tantra.” It’s a high price, for sure, but “Pancha Tantra,” with a print run of only 1,600, is no run-of-the-mill […]
Continue ReadingNow that blatant displays of racism are condemned and even outlawed, some psychologists are exploring more subtle expressions of prejudice… Researchers say the daily repetition of such incidents can have corrosive, and sometimes deadly, consequences. Carl Bell was waiting his turn to check in at his hotel. A well-regarded psychiatrist and academic, he was traveling […]
Continue ReadingOnly three percent of US construction workers are women. But with baby boomers about to retire, employers and labor unions need women more than ever… To increase the ranks of women in construction, the newly founded Rosie the Riveter Charter High School in California will start preparing careers in hard hats. After she dropped out […]
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