Why is kindness taken as stupidity? I’d like to start out by saying I’m a nice person. I like being polite, kind, and helpful to others (hey, I’m a librarian, so it comes with the territory). I appreciate it when others treat me with the same decency and respect that I show them. What I don’t understand is people taking a good quality, like kindness, for stupidity or weakness. The saying, “don’t smile until Christmas,” is a serious mantra among … Continue reading →
Cars. They’re so many things to so many people. To some, they’re a means of transportation, a way to get from one location to another whether it’s for work or for play. To others, they’re the epitome of style, icons of a particular age representing tastes long since expired. But sometimes, like the Velveteen Rabbit, cars can go beyond being amalgamations of metal, spark plugs, screws, and wheels to become something much more–they can become “real.” I’m sure we all … Continue reading →
Why are we fascinated by popping zits? You like it, but you don’t want to admit you like it–watching buttery yellow goo squeezed out of someone’s skin like Easy Cheese. Don’t worry if the sight of zits popping does something for you. Seeing the millions of views Dr. Pimple Popper (a.k.a. dermatologist Dr. Sandra Lee) is getting on YouTube, you’re far from the only one interested in watching cysts, blackheads, and lipomas being extracted. Many of us, including yours truly, … Continue reading →
Why do we like shlumpy robes so much? I’m sure we all have one–that shlumpy bathrobe we love wearing in the privacy of our home but not in the presence of guests. It may be old, ratty, and even slightly stained from things we can’t remember. Despite all of that, we just can’t part with that favorite shlumpy robe. What is it that makes us practice monogamy with a bathrobe? Perhaps it’s soft, fuzzy, cozy, long, a Christmas gift from … Continue reading →
Why is Star Wars so appealing to multiple generations? Full disclosure–I’ve been a Star Wars fan ever since watching my first movie in the series, Return of the Jedi. I was 9 years old, and I remember standing with my mother in a line that snaked around the outside of the cinema waiting to get inside. I was particularly unnerved by the scene in which a droid was tortured in Jabba the Hut’s palace, and I shuddered whenever Darth Vader, malevolence personified, made his … Continue reading →