So, today, everyone’s favorite rag, “The Guardian” (my British friends refer to it as, “The Graudian,” in reference to the frequent typos), published a story titled, “Why are Americans ignoring the protests in Iran?” (no, really; https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2022/nov/29/iran-protests-us-media-coverage-mahsa-amini). Ignoring for a brief second how utterly egocentric the Anglophonic world must be…

So, let’s talk about how we talk about cancer, because our framework defines the narrative that ends in death and blood. I have a 95 year old grandmother, Marge. Whenever Marge develops some new ailment (and she has more of those than grandchildren, at this point), regardless of the nature…

So, my support didn’t meet this Monday. We’re not all dead or anything; it’s just Labor Day, and the Cancer Center operates on that well-regarded piece of medical wisdom — “The disease takes federally-recognized holidays off. Also, weird, local holidays, if enough people recognize them.” So, I’m forced to bring…

There are going to be a ton of flaming hot takes on the recent SCOTUS decision overturning Roe v Wade. Here is another one. — “When people show you who they are, believe them the first time.” — Maya Angelou So, cards on the table with regards to my own particular stance and politics here, I’m a fan of Roe v Wade, and it’s not particularly because I’m wild about women or abortions; I would…

With regards to Harvey Milk, who once said, “I know that you can live on hope, alone, but without it, life is not worth living.” He nailed that, but cancer survivors are robbed of so much else in our lives, hope is the one thing we cling to, like a…

In the wake of the increasingly dreadful film series, I thought now would be a unique opportunity to revisit the book, and, more specifically, what it predicted accurately — Futurism is a tricky, desperate thing, unless we’re discussing “Futurama,” which somehow predicted all of today’s bullshit, including the reelection of Richard Nixon. In almost every other example, from Heinlein to Haldeman, predicting the fate of our species is an exercise in making as many predictions as possible, and quietly…

My support group, who normally are my bedrock in generating stories, are all having a good week. We literally just did a very quick individual check-in (I might have revealed that my religious bent is “Lutheran atheist” and that, as guilt, self-doubt, and anxiety are my core emotions, I wouldn’t…

In light of the recent, weird review-bombs that straight men with tiny penises (penii? Penodes? What’s the plural) inevitably leave whenever any franchise suggests they share this world with other people, I felt compelled to give a differing view. — I hate to bring politics into this piece in the first paragraph, but that’s what the Incels have just required me to do. I can’t just say, “This is awesome, you should go see it,” anymore; I now have to delve into why a brown kid from the Rust Belt…

As someone who watched Columbine on live television, and is now old enough to see history repeat itself, I knew that we would see the inevitable distractions and non-solutions to America’s gun-violence crisis. We’re now returning, on social media, to that tired old one, “We need more Jebus.” For my religious friends, the punchline this week is, “religion is no substitute for coherent policy, but politicians would like you to think it is.”