There’s something deeply flawed about Valentine’s Day. It’s surprising, given that we’re talking about an entire holiday devoted to having fun with someone you find attractive, consuming decadent food and alcohol, exchanging cards, gifts, and statements of devotion, and, in all likelihood, getting laid. From that perspective, the idea that a ritual like this could […]

New Yorkers aren’t the happiest bunch. For any number of reasons (working too much, subsisting on mercury-laden tuna, living in $3,000-a-month concrete boxes surrounded by two thousand other concrete boxes at even more laughable prices) those who chose to live here don’t tend to be the happy-go-lucky type.
In a way, it’s a matter of […]

I’m not smart every day. Or even 85% of days. I’d lay the odds at around 5/6ths. Maybe that’s being generous.
I’ve learned to accept this, after countless mornings spent poring through WebMD to see if there’s some way my brain cells could have evaporated overnight. Writers love to flounder in self-created dramas about “the […]

People hate Christmas. They really do. When I was a child (a time period that includes the majority of my life so far, including the odd day or two in the present), I would listen to adults talk about how much they loathed the holidays, how the whole business was one earth-shattering headache, and all […]

If you’re feeling exceptionally healthy today (translation: not requiring major surgery at any point in the conceivable future) check out my article in the New York Times about anesthesia awareness. Nothing like a few traumatic and possibly unavoidable side effects to make you glad you dropped out of Intro to Bio after the first day […]

You have to laugh. When I started this whole blogging cavalcade back in 2005, if I told people I had a blog (which I didn’t, for fear of the exact reactions I’m about to describe), they responded by either tittering incredulously or changing the subject with breakneck speed. Even saying the word out loud was […]

So I haven’t been blogging. At least, not here anyway. It’s always in the back of my head, that little voice nagging about how I haven’t blogged, burrowed snugly between “You’ve washed that towel maybe once in the last 80 days” and “You haven’t called your last remaining grandparent in three months.” I don’t have […]

No, this site hasn’t turned into an Internet graveyard, but several would-be posts have been ritually sacrificed to the “I’m insanely busy with work and other projects” gods. Some people (including certain parental units) would say this is a good thing, that I’m being redirected away from the introverted navel-gazery of blogging to focus on […]

Thanks to all who have written in with various back diagnoses, advice, home remedies, and horror stories. Yes, I have managed to remove myself from the bathroom floor; yes, I do plan to try acupuncture; and no, I have never wrestled professionally or carried an armoire that I found on the street up four flights […]

I’m convinced that the universe has its own instincts — it senses when we’re approaching a collective overload on one notion or sentiment, and acts to push us the other way; on an individual level, it can keep you aligned with the nebulous greater balance, assuming you’re paying close enough attention. And then, every once […]