The ethics of travel represent constantly shifting soil that needs to be navigated with care. Tourism in general comes with both costs and benefits, and those can become even more extreme in particular places; yet, I don’t see many frequent travelers thinking about the impact of their travel. Or, if they do, they assure themselves …
Category Archives: commentary
YA Is Not A Guidebook to Self-Harm, Teen Sex, or Anything Else
Discussing the slew of concerntrolling editorials about how YA is destroying the world, a radio producer recently asked me if I thought YA acts like a user guide to self-harm and other potentially destructive, harmful, or socially undesirable behaviours. It’s a point that gets brought up a lot in these op-eds, and my response, as …
Crochety Curmudgeon Files: ‘Modern Love’
You know what, people? I don’t like ‘Modern Love.’ You know, the column at the New York Times that everyone routinely goes gaga over and starts linking in a wildfire that spreads across the Internet as everyone talks about how ‘deep’ and ‘real’ it is? It bores me to tears, sometimes actively infuriates me, and …
Notes From the Urban/Rural Divide: Working Animals
As many readers know, I have a pair of cats of whom I’m inordinately fond, even though they also drive me absolutely up the wall sometimes because they refuse to get it together and reach a peaceable state of mutual dislike rather than active hatred. My cats occupy a somewhat unusual position: they don’t go …
Journos, You’ve Gotta Link To the Studies You’re Citing
My current pet peeve in journalism (and oh, there are many, so it’s sometimes hard to choose) is lines like this: ‘according to researchers…’ ‘a recent study…’ etc. With no reference as to the actual study, or, sometimes, the very names of the researchers. Let alone, in online journalism, a simple link to the study …
It’s Not the Emotions, It’s How You Act On Them
A thing I find myself saying more and more lately is this: ‘you can’t control your feelings, but you can decide what you do about them.’ It doesn’t strike me as a particularly revolutionary statement, but people are often surprised by it, and that reveals a lot about how people think about emotions, feelings, and …
A Little Positive Reinforcement Goes A Long Way
A friend of mine was working on a challenging project recently, and she was feeling pretty frustrated and defeated. It was hard for her to get and stay motivated, and she felt like she was kind of blowing in the breeze. I turned myself into her personal cheerleader. I reminded her that she was awesome …
The Love of Sharing Books With People
A friend of mine walked up to me in the street the other day and punched me in the arm, in a half-joking, half-serious kind of way that did, I admit, leave me with a slight stinging sensation. ‘What did I ever do to you?!’ ‘You recommended that book and it made me cry,’ she …
Saturday Delivery
Saturday mail delivery in the United States almost came to an end this year, which I am going to freely admit makes me sad. I’ve been watching the struggles of the post office, and how people react to them, over the last few years, and I think of the signal it’s sending to see one …