ArcaMax

When I was in high school, rarely was an insult worse than calling someone "fake."

"Gosh, I love your shoes," a girl might say, sitting next to you in chemistry, simultaneously giving you a side-eye that communicated much more convincingly that she did not, actually, love your shoes at all. In fact, the way she'd said she loved your shoes ...Read more

While we're distracted by Coldplay concert kiss cams, 20-year-olds in swimsuits arguing on "Love Island" and Donald Trump trying to not talk about the Epstein files, children are starving to death in Gaza.

I would tell you to Google "Gaza famine" and see the innumerable pictures of skeletal children cradled by their distraught parents, but I ...Read more

On July 16, 1945, the United States detonated the first nuclear bomb in New Mexico on what's now the White Sands Missile Range. About 40 miles away from the Trinity test site, a group of girls at a dance camp were thrown from their bunks in the explosion. Thinking a water heater had exploded, they ran outside and saw a strange summer snow ...Read more

My son wants to eat his lunch in the shade.

It's a reasonable request, sure, but he's at summer camp and they have rules, one of them being that campers must always be in counselors' eyesight, including during lunchtime.

As a parent who knows that kids don't always warn you before they run off to follow a butterfly or an interesting noise or...Read more

I refuse to try to build any more precious childhood memories for my kids. I'm just giving them fuel for the therapist's office (and I'm sure they already have enough of that).

The camel's back-breaking straw came the other day, when my husband and I took our kids to an open-air concert at a venue near our house. I packed us a cooler full of ...Read more

If you asked my dad the top three causes of illness worldwide, here's what he'd say:

No. 3: Walking around inside the house barefoot.

No. 2: Leaving the house with wet hair.

No. 1: Air conditioning.

I understand not being accustomed to air conditioning. He didn't grow up with it. In Greece, most homes and some cars don't have it, even now....Read more

Before we start, it's important that we all know what "Juventus" is.

They're an Italian soccer team, based in Turin, and they're one of the top squads in the country. Some of the sport's most recognizable athletes, like Michel Platini, Roberto Baggio and Zinedine Zidane, have played for Juventus. I'm not sure what significance Juventus holds ...Read more

It's not that I don't remember my father complaining.

Because, oh, he did plenty of that. He complained about how there were too many lights on in the house, how we hadn't eaten all our food, how the door was still open or how we'd turned the heat up too high. He complained that our grades weren't good enough, that we fought with each other ...Read more

COUNSELOR: Gentlemen, please have a seat. Thanks for coming today. I understand the two of you are navigating a recent conflict and would like some guidance in resolving that dispute. It's very brave to seek help, you know.

PRESIDENT DONALD TRUMP: (Mumbling) Wasn't my idea. Mike Johnson insisted.

ELON MUSK: Did you hear that? This is the ...Read more

If you've been reading, listening to or watching the news lately, you've heard about the allegations that former President Joe Biden suffered a precipitous cognitive decline while in office, one that could not and apparently did not go unnoticed by Democratic lawmakers, aides, strategists and big-wig donors including Amal Clooney's husband, ...Read more

On the night of May 21, someone shot two young Israeli Embassy employees walking out of the Capital Jewish Museum in Washington, D.C., after an event. Police said the suspect shouted, "Free, free Palestine," after he was arrested. In a New York Times post about the attack, one commenter suggested giving the shooter a medal. Another replied, "...Read more

Sometimes, I pretend to be a lunch lady.

I volunteer for shifts helping out at my boys' elementary school, work that entails helping the other lunchroom workers get set up for the rush, dishing out the food when the kids get there, and then helping restock the fresh fruit and veggies before I take off my apron and gloves and sit down next to ...Read more

I don't know if you've heard already, but there's a new pope in town.

Not only is he American -- the first U.S.-born head of the Catholic Church -- but he's also from Chicago, which is close enough to where I live to have sent a thrill of victory through me when I heard the announcement.

For Greek people, it's like hearing someone famous is ...Read more