Featured Posts
‘Tis the Season for Fireflies and Glow Worms
An Australian journalist details his search for the first fireflies of the season in a New South Wales park in 2023. His guide is a bioluminescence chaser who also points out glow worms during their excursion.
Being Arab in My Suburb in the 1970s
Our suburban school district has a reputation for not having much diversity. And it has always irked me. On our street alone, there are people from Ecuador, Mexico, and Vietnam. A man from Ireland who used to live down the block just moved houses. The catch is that most of these people don’t look like they’re from somewhere else. And that’s why I love the title of the book “But You Don’t Look Arab: And Other Tales of Unbelonging” by Emmy Award-winning international journalist Hala Gorani, which includes cameos from folks I actually know.
Translating the Sights of the Holidays for Those with Vision Impairments
When my son was diagnosed with red-green colorblindness as a teenager in 2019, fall colors were at their height. I suddenly understood why he had always been meh about the changing leaves—unless they happened to be vibrant yellow. In the past three years, I’ve learned a great deal about my son’s visual experiences, and I’m better (but nowhere near perfect) at skipping past colors and identifying the many other sensory delights during the winter holidays.
Snoot Sandwiches, Sundown Towns and a Chef’s Reckoning with Racism
I didn’t know what a sundown town was until I moved to St. Louis. And I’ll be honest, it still jars me to hear people describe it casually, as in this deeply personal segment of the local TV show “Food Is Love.” I don’t want to give away spoilers about what Chef Lasse Sorensen learns about his own complicity in this episode, which aired in 2022. But I commend him for his brutal honesty in sharing the lesson publicly as it unfolded.
5 Paths to New Outdoor Adventures
My first time rappelling happened in France. I was with a longtime friend and her cousin, who only spoke French. He suggested something that I vaguely understood to be an outdoor activity. My friend agreed with gusto for both of us. And that’s how I found myself strapped to a rope and descending off an abandoned railroad bridge to practice. Then it was off to the real adventure on the cliffs of Ardeche.