ArcaMax

There's a quote on my desktop from the Roman emperor and philosopher Marcus Aurelius that I'm making the subject of my New Year's resolution in 2025. It goes like this:

"How much time he gains who does not look to see what his neighbor says or does or thinks, but only at what he does himself, to make it just and holy."

I suppose there are ...Read more

The older I get, the less I like Christmas gifts (shopping for them, anyway) and the more I wish I could officially reserve holiday presents solely for children, who are so demonstrative and easy to impress that they make even the most gigantic hassle worthwhile for the looks on their faces when they come downstairs on Christmas morning.

...Read more

My brother-in-law recently sent a message to our family text chain, the members of whom rest somewhere on the political spectrum from solidly Democratic to more liberal than Mao Zedong.

What do we think of this?

He linked to a story about President Joe Biden pardoning his son, Hunter, who had been convicted on tax evasion and gun ...Read more

"This is junk food, Mommy."

That's what my 6-year-old told me as he sat down to his pre-swimming lesson snack. I'd given him peanut butter pretzels, fruit snacks and a piece of leftover Halloween candy.

"It's bad for me, and I'll get tired in a half-hour," he went on, starting to cry. "I don't want to get tired in a half-hour."

As I talked ...Read more

Now that the 2024 presidential election has come to its inevitable if protracted conclusion, can we turn the page? Donald Trump won so we won't have to sit through years of conspiracy theories about how Democrats have been training tiny monkeys to live in the ballot scanners and reject all Trump votes, but there are plenty of other matters I'd...Read more

Wake me when the election is over.

Actually, don't only wait until the election is over, wake me up when the campaign-related complaining, conspiracy theories, insults, protests, riots, bad jokes, lawsuits and death threats are over. Just to make sure, wait until after the votes are certified and the inauguration has safely concluded.

I ...Read more

There's a great gulf of silence in our country, a yawning chasm of "no comment" from Republicans on the shocking, disturbing and bizarre things that former President Donald Trump has said and continues to say.

That lack of criticism -- born from fear of retribution not only from Trump but from his minions in and out of political office -- was...Read more

Despite Americans in 2024 having access to more high-quality, well-sourced information on every topic known to man, somehow, we're seemingly also the most ill-informed people in human history.

I turn for evidence to a statement that a member of Congress was forced to release in response to what he called Hurricane Helene "response myths." The...Read more

The last thing I expected while watching a Korean cooking TV show was to confront my childhood feelings about my Greek heritage, but that's exactly what happened.

That I settled on "Culinary Class Wars" on Netflix was no surprise. I'm a sucker for reality cooking competitions, particularly ones that lean heavily on the contestants' cooking ...Read more

I asked my husband the other day how the vice presidential debate went. Because I no longer subject myself to torturous events that have absolutely no bearing on my life, I hadn't watched.

"Not good," he said.

He was worried that J.D. Vance's smooth performance against Tim Walz meant trouble for the Democratic ticket.

"Don't worry," I told ...Read more

It's hardly even fall, but already I'm looking for airline tickets for Thanksgiving, my jaw agape in horror at the prices.

It's never been cheap to travel during the holidays, so I can't tell if I'm just getting crotchetier about the cost or if flying is truly getting that much more expensive.

Whatever the answer, I'm committed, begrudgingly...Read more