Op-eds

Nickelback’s ‘The Devil Went Down to Georgia’ is how they remind you of what they really are

Nobody asked for this. But sometimes, even that which brings us together in hatred still brings us together.

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Subvert Valentine’s Day: remake the celebration of love in your own image

If Valentine’s Day feels too forced, overly consumerist or an exercise in self-loathing, just change it to your liking. Everyone else already has

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I don’t call myself bisexual – I let my stories tell themselves

These days, I’ll mention a guy I dated if it comes up and is relevant, and then I’ll also say I’m dating a girl right now who I really really like, if they ask

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Aunt Flo’s arrival will ruin your best laid plans — almost like she has a mind of her own

Aunt Flo — that bloody red lady of the night who visits for one to seven days every month — generally appears right as we are about to have fun, as though timed to spoil it.

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When my 90s-era online love showed up, I knew my memories were a fantasy

In my early 20s, I found myself in New York City doing an internship in Midtown Manhattan. I didn’t know that many people in New York, I was always shivering in the heavy air-conditioning, and my boss didn’t seem interested in being my friend.

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My mother, myself: how her profession influenced – and reflects – my own work

I had been living in Los Angeles for a little over a year when my parents came to visit – finally, reluctantly. They were upset that I’d moved so far away from Chicago; they would have preferred I relocate to New York City, but they told me that they just wanted me to be happy.

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Even the most car-centric city holds joys for pedestrians … if you seek them out

Walking through most American cities can be a desolating experience. Few are made for people like me, the pedestrian, who choose strolling and observing over cruising fast through constructed landscapes. 

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The mall is part of the American experience. It was our public square

I love the mall as much as I love the urban walking experience, museums and movie theaters. Today the stripmall is not just a part of my everyday life in Los Angeles – a place that so well offers the paradox of American consumerism with a health-conscious urban elite – it is also a memory from my own suburban adolescence growing up in Illinois.

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