By now, many people have heard of Caster Semenya. The 18 year-old South African runner first made the news for her stellar run in the African Junior Championships, but had her victory tainted by competitors who insisted that the IAFF, (the International Association of Athletics Federations), should test Semenya’s gender to see if she is [...]

I hate the trees in Minnesota. Not a little, but a lot.  They’re fucking everywhere. There’s no escape from the giant oaks, wide maples, and imposing boxelders. There are fields and fields of trees, often standing mere inches apart  . . . endless acres of crowded trunks, thick and spindly, with gnarled branches and continuously [...]

Universities in the “Show-Me” state of Missouri seem to like studying blogs and the characters of those who write them.  Last year, the Missouri State University in Springfield asked me to participate in a student study on media ethics and the “Wild West” of the internet. Yesterday, Tal Yakoni and Dr. Simine Vazire of the [...]

As I was gathering materials and enough righteous indignation to bring you another WTF Friday, a light bulb went off.  Surely, I thought, there’s a job out there for me reporting nothing but meaningless trivia.  Plenty of  people seem to be making their livelihoods this way, and I’m sure I could write a compelling two [...]

Spellbound in front of the television set at eight, nine years old, I’d watch the thick-thighed women of roller derby growl, sweat, and scuffle their way around the track, flying their opponents into the rails with a body slam or, when the referees weren’t watching, by the hair.  Much of it was choreographed, like [...]

A seven year-old boy throws a temper tantrum in his second grade classroom, stomping on a teacher’s foot, battering a school administrator, and tearing the room apart.  The class had to be evacuated by school officials to ensure the safety of the other children, and police and the boy’s mother were called.
So why are the [...]