The Misery of Kettlebells and Writing

There’s no crying in baseball. There’s no crying at the gym, either. Yet there I was by the slant board with tears streaming down my face. I am an ugly crier. Worse, once I start I cannot stop. My face was turned to the wall, so my instructor hadn’t yet seen the tears. “You’re overthinking […]

Redux: Fasting – The New Fad Diet?

This story was originally published in 2013. Since then, evidence for the benefits of fasting has mounted. See here, here, and here. But so many questions still remain. What is clear? Dieting is hard. For example, this study, which examined an every-other-day-fast regimen and a more traditional calorie-restriction diet, lost 31% of its participants.     […]

A Skeptic Limps Into a Reflexology Session

Six months ago, I did something foolish. I ran a five-mile race with little training. I figured five miles wasn’t going to kill me, and it didn’t. But after the race, I had a nagging ache in my ankle. So I took a break from running, and the ankle pain went away. I thought I […]

Redux:Vaccines, Viruses, and the Anti-Vax Movement

In 2013, I attended a lecture by Dr. Lawrence Palevsky, a physician who believes vaccination is the cause of many, many evils. Four years later, Palevsky is still railing against vaccines. His latest newsletter, which arrived in my inbox a couple of days ago, highlights a story that celebrates the defeat of several vaccine bills […]

The Last Word

April 9 -13 What is it like to find yourself masticated by the outrage clickbait industrial complex? Regrettably, Michelle found out when her otherwise uncontroversial article about how to talk to your kids about climate change got “rebranded” for maximum outrage by an anti-climate change propaganda site. Warning: this is not an easy read. The comments […]

Redux: A Penis Shaped Like a Musical Instrument

We haven’t had a post in our occasional ‘Thank God It’s Penis Friday‘ series in quite awhile, so here’s one that we first published in 2013. Warning: images in links may be unsuitable for some. (Oh who am I kidding? Images in links may be unsuitable for most).  By the time dermatologist Sanjeev Vaishampayan met […]

The Hidden Risks of Snot Sucking

Three weeks ago I came down with the flu. I was sicker than I have been in years. For a full five days, I could only manage to quiver on the couch and binge watch old seasons of Scandal. One episode would end and the next would automatically begin until Netflix asked incredulously, “Are you […]

The Last Word

Erik wonders if the nonsense words that populate the best children’s books are a good idea when your kid is already tasked with learning two languages. “Someday he’ll learn the words “muggle,” “orc,” “Ewok,” Klingon,” “melange,” and “thoughtful lawmaker,” none of which are real,” he writes, prompting many assurances in the comments that “melange” is […]