The Rule of Petty

In these crazy times where truth seems slippery and squirrely, I feel like we should hang on to whatever bits of linguistic logic and sanity that are still out there.…

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The Broccoli Gene

My daughter, who is now twenty-two years old and a strict vegetarian, wanted to know if her dislike of ‘cruciferous vegetables’[1] was just her being a baby or if there…

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This is my Brain over Fifty

Ever since I hit my fifties, I’ve turned into a different person. Even my hair has changed—it was pin straight for five decades, and now it’s curly. What the absolute…

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Guilt as a Motivational Tool

I was trying to explain Jewish guilt to a friend who didn’t grow up around Jewish people. She understood guilt as a concept, but couldn’t understand why I’d embrace it…

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Koala Brains

I recently learned that Koalas have brains that look like a boneless, skinless chicken breast. This is not like a regular mammilian brain, which is all folded in on itself…

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