We need to treat the trauma of these events seriously — When someone hauls out a gun and starts shooting, it doesn’t just injure the people who get hit, it traumatizes the entire community. Add in the reach of modern media and the trauma spreads far and wide. How should we react? Is mass murder a laughing matter? No, swears Texas…

What are the odds? Would it change anything? — “Imagine if we won,” I said to my husband. “What would we spend it on?” We were broke college students lying side by side in a worn-out second-hand bed in a ramshackle apartment on the wrong side of the tracks. …

Help your child with their homework without destroying your relationship or anyone ending up in tears — “I can’t wait until I’m an adult and never have to fill out a stupid worksheet again,” you said as a 10-year-old. We rage doing taxes each year because of flashbacks to math homework. …

Creative programming so terrible it’s awesome — What happens when low-ranking service members need to create TV content to please the base commander and fill airtime usually taken up by commercials? If you are lucky, pure comedy gold. If you served in the US Military overseas or were a military brat, you know all about the joys…

Is nowhere safe from globalization? — When you go to France, you expect croissants and baguettes. Germany, schnitzel. Italy, oodles of pasta. In England, you will drink tea of course. Proper British tea. Black with milk, no sugar, the way the Queen and God intended. We were in the depths of rural Cornwall when we entered…

Words of wisdom from my physiotherapist — “Pain is weird,” says the physiotherapist. “It’s physical and mental. Your brain will go to great lengths to avoid feeling pain in an area of injury and its main tool is causing pain somewhere else. You need to isolate the real source of pain and push through it. Avoidance never…

Why would I say that Apple? No one would say that. How do you write with a broken wrist? Voice-to-text software of course. My computer does a great job of converting my ramblings into words but occasionally it returns a real head-scratcher. I’ve mostly used Apple’s built-in tool on my…

Did anyone else have whiteboards on their wedding gift registry? No? Just me? I was afraid of that. — “I need to order a whiteboard," said my daughter on the phone. “Since this is for school, is it OK if I use the American Express card?" In retrospect, I should've realized a desire for grad school wouldn’t be far behind. My spouse and I got engaged as mere babies…

Sleeping in the bathtub seemed like my only choice — Fancy a relaxing soak to melt away the aches and pains of life? Not so fast. The ultimate in self-care might just be your downfall. 234,000 Americans a year end up in the emergency room after a bathroom injury. …