For 12 years, during the week, I worked out of an apartment in Pittsburgh. When COVID hit, I moved back home full time. The problem is I did not move back alone. Somewhere between the packing and the movers, a few stowaways hitched a ride. When I opened my closet this summer, two tiny, beige, ...
Trust in American institutions has been dissipating for over a half a century. Long before we had the COVID-19 arguments over masks, we already had Watergate, Vietnam, and Iran-Contra. Each of those made us wonder if the folks in charge knew what they were doing or were lying to our faces. For ...
It was a different time. In fact, the crazy fun we had in the ’70s was like a spin-off from the fun sitcom “Delta House” or the movie “Animal House.” Every Thursday night, we had a standing invitation from our friend Jim to go to Carl and Ethel’s basement. Jim didn’t live there ...
Only two countries on Earth let drug companies pitch their products directly to you and me: New Zealand and the United States. Canada dabbled in these direct-to-consumer ads but quickly tightened up their rules. The European Union, back in 2008, took one look and said, “Nope – not here.” ...
Editor’s note: This column draws on Dr. Aaron E. Carroll’s essay, “The Bright Spots of American Healthcare: A Beacon of Innovation and Progress,” published in The New York Times on Sept. 5. When people talk to me about health care in the U.S., it’s usually a conversation filled with ...
During my lifetime, there have been more doomsday predictions than I can count. Religious leaders, cult founders and politicians have been warning, “The end is near,” for as long as I’ve been around. I looked ’em up. Harold Camping had billboards, Marshall Applewhite had his ...
