Category: Culture & Commentary
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Red Hair Pride: Lessons from Jolene and Aging
For Kiss a Ginger Day, I can’t help but think about Jolene and about the years I spent wishing I looked like someone else. I was born with naturally auburn hair. Not fiery red, not strawberry blonde. Auburn, the kind that shifts with the light and refuses to be easily categorized. And for a long…
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National Hot Air Balloon Day
When 2009 Taught Us How to Rise Some years don’t arrive gently.2009 was one of them. The economy faltered, security felt fragile, and many people found themselves standing in the middle of lives that no longer looked the way they had planned. It was a year of recalibration, not by choice, but by necessity. Hot…
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Secondhand Sunday: Can We Stop Shaming Each Other Now?
Secondhand Sunday used to be simple. It was about encouraging people to shop secondhand for practical reasons: saving money, finding unique pieces, and stretching a family budget a little further. It was also about pushing back against the old stigma that thrifting was only for people who “couldn’t afford better.” Fast forward to the 2010s,…
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The Roller Coaster of the 2020s: Unraveling and Re-Weaving Society
The first half of the 2020s will be remembered as a decade that didn’t tiptoe in. It barged through the door, knocked over the furniture, and dared us to pretend everything was fine. Many of us walked into 2020 with vision-board optimism, only to find ourselves saying, like the Friends theme song, “No one told…
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Manic Monday: Of Bears, Buses, and Beltway Blunders
It’s just another Manic Monday, as The Bangles so perfectly sang, and today, the internet is buzzing louder than a coffee grinder at dawn. Between viral Starbucks hysteria, government shutdown drama, and promises of “free” everything in New York, you’d think it was a full moon. Let’s start with the latest caffeine craze. Starbucks has…
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Thankful Thursday: The Gift of Water
It’s November, a month traditionally steeped in gratitude, yet the world feels heavy right now. Wars rage across the globe, the economy feels uncertain, a government shutdown has disrupted travel and strained food banks, and late-season Hurricane Melissa has left communities reeling. In moments like these, it can be hard to find reasons to be…
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It’s Still the Economy, Stupid: A Gen X Reflection on Cycles, Struggle, and Survival
In 1992, James Carville,Bill Clinton’s campaign strategist, coined a simple yet powerful phrase that would echo through the decades: “It’s the economy, stupid.” It was a blunt reminder that no matter how complicated the political noise gets, what matters most to the average American family is the cost of living, job security, and whether bills…
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The Dark Side of “Easy Money” — Why TokReviews Isn’t What It Seems
HELLO YOU. If you’ve been scrolling TikTok lately, you may have stumbled on videos promising you can “earn hundreds just by reviewing TikToks.” The link they share? TokReviews.com — a slick-looking site dressed up in TikTok branding and dripping with promises of quick, easy cash. At first glance, it feels legit. You click the link,…
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Swifties Sunday: When the Music and the Artist Grow Up
There’s a strange tension in the air every time Taylor Swift releases a new album. You can feel it on TikTok, in the comments, and across X (formerly Twitter): fans dissecting every lyric, defending or denouncing the new sound, and ultimately deciding whether she’s “still the same Taylor.” This week, it’s The Life of a…
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ThrowbackThursday | Keyboard Warriors & The Cost of Disrespect
Mike Tyson once said:“Social media made y’all way too comfortable with disrespecting people and not getting punched in the face for it.” As a Gen Xer, I can’t help but nod in agreement. We grew up in an era where you had to say things face-to-face. You knew there were consequences if your words cut…
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The Algorithm of Outrage: Not Every Headline Deserves Your Peace
We live in a time where outrage is currency. Social media feeds us headlines designed to spark emotion, arguments, and clicks. The more heated we get, the more the algorithm wins. But here’s the truth: not every headline deserves your peace. Parasocial Relationships and the Illusion of Intimacy With the rise of social media, we’ve…
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Big Brother Season 27: A Bittersweet Goodbye
Finale night always carries a strange mix of excitement and sadness. For me, it’s not unlike the end of a summer spent working at Cedar Point. While I wasn’t locked away in a house for 90 days, I worked up to 100 hours a week, six days at a time, living in dorm housing and…
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