December 15, 2009, is the worst yet most important day of my life. I lost my Grandma that day. She was everything to me. The person who I felt understood me the most — gone when I was 19. There’s a hole there that can never be filled. I’ve probably buried myself in more video games than […]

Robert Fernandez, one of the last known American survivors of the bombing of Pearl Harbor, died on Wednesday in Lodi, Calif., just days after the 83rd anniversary of the attack. He was 100. His nephew Joe Guthrie confirmed the death. “I promised him 10 years ago that he could die in my home, and that’s […]

British film director Asif Kapadia was, for a decade, on a “watch list” that saw him stopped and interviewed every time he tried to enter the US. The Oscar-winning director of the documentary Amy told this weekend’s Guardian newspaper his experience began after he travelled back from New York in the early 2000s, and a […]

Good morning. It’s list-making season. I’m cataloging gifts I want to give family and friends, tabulating all the work that needs to be done on the skiff before the fish return in the spring, putting basement chores on the docket, indexing every book I’ve read this year. I’m looking forward, looking back, taking stock and […]

A close ally of Russian President Vladimir Putin has said that “new” and “very close regions” may become part of Russia. Dmitry Medvedev, a former Russian president and the deputy head of Putin’s Security Council, made the comments during a congress of the United Russia party this week, according to Russian state news agency TASS. […]

Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt., on Sunday described President-elect Donald Trump’s threat to jail members of the House Jan. 6th Committee as “an outrageous statement” and said that President Joe Biden should consider preemptive pardons for committee members. “This is what authoritarianism is all about. It’s what dictatorship is all about,” Sanders added. Asked whether Biden […]

Israel’s military said it carried out strikes and raids in northern Gaza on Sunday after days of deadly bombardments across the territory. The military said in a statement that it had targeted a “terrorist meeting point” in the northern town of Beit Hanoun, among other actions. Wafa, the Palestinian Authority’s news agency, reported that Israeli […]

When I was 16 years old, I was convinced that the most boring place on Earth was Salem, Oregon. As a grunge-punk teen growing up in the 90s, I thought Salem was everything that Seattle and Portland were not. It wasn’t cool, edgy or exciting. It was a city of bureaucrats, where you could find […]

Few things are better than settling down with a good book, but sometimes the settling is easier said than done. Between a long commute, making dinner, or just getting some fresh air outside, there are some times that a traditional book (or even an e-reader) just won’t cut it. For all those times, there’s no […]

This Christmas was the first restrictionless Christmas since the beginning of the pandemic and I, like many parents I’m guessing, tried to make it extra special. And I know for a fact I won’t be putting quite as much of an effort next year. These days, and this year especially, it felt like there was […]

The post Why I won’t try so hard to make next Christmas ‘magical’ appeared first on RollerCoaster.