Lori Falce stories, Page 13
Lori Falce: Too much time on election clock?
Elections are often talked about in sporting terms. It’s a race. It’s a game. Who is ahead? By how many points? Play offense. Play defense. Home field advantage. Score big. But maybe the biggest similarity between picking our leaders and playing ball is in the timing. When my family watches...
Lori Falce: Facts, ideas and watching TV with mom
Because my mother is a nurse, I have spent years having my television and movie viewing punctuated by huffing and heckling. “Those bed rails would never be like that.” “They would never inject that in a bicep.” “That’s not how you draw blood.” I may have rolled my eyes a...
Lori Falce: The history of cancel culture
The pyramids have stood for thousands of years, proclaiming the ability of Egyptian pharaohs like Khufu and Khafre to orchestrate projects of literally monumental scale. They tell us that there are deeds that are bigger than a person and that while a person’s life is short, history can have a...
Lori Falce: The math of school safety and coronavirus
A year ago, I was writing a column about school safety. I had just attended orientation for my son, learning the ropes and checking out the rooms at the middle school he was excited to start. The safety issues were guns and active shooter situations, with a side note of...
Lori Falce: Is it a conspiracy theory?
Is it cake? It’s a phenomenon taking over the internet. Look at this video showing a book or suitcase or can of baked beans. But wait, what’s happening? Someone produces a knife and cuts it in half. That simple household object turns out to be chocolate and buttercream and fondant....
Lori Falce: Coin shortage is circulation problem
You might be hearing about a coin shortage. Businesses that often depend on cash — or specifically on the little discs of zinc and nickel and copper that form those smallest molecules of our currency system — have reported trouble getting enough to keep going as usual. Quarters keep the...
Lori Falce: Can Disney solve pandemic problem?Video
I love Walt Disney World. I have spent more than my fair share of time in the parks, and yes, I am one of those people who visited even without kids. (If you haven’t, you should. It’s a totally different experience.) I love Dole Whips and the Haunted Mansion, and...
Lori Falce: Take off the headphones and listen
I have a love-hate relationship with part of my son’s head. His earphones. Oh, sure, you may argue they are not actually a part of his head. You would be wrong. Prying them away is very much like pulling out fingernails or a tooth. It’s dangerous work best done while...
Lori Falce: What will your last words be?
“I love you, too.” George H.W. Bush, who lost his wife Barbara seven months earlier, gave his last words to his son and fellow president George W. Bush. “Oh wow. Oh wow. Oh wow,” Steve Jobs said before being claimed by cancer. “Let me go to the house of the...
Lori Falce: Adoption should be happily ever after
There is more than one way to create a family. None of them are easy. When I was little, I had a fairy-tale understanding of adoption. A woodcarver wanted a son so he carved Pinocchio. A swan egg ended up in a nest of ducklings. These things just happen. But...
Lori Falce: Why keep Facebook friends you don’t agree with?
I know a lot of people who measure the people they know on social media by the company they keep. It is easy to be accused of guilt by association if someone doesn’t believe the same things you do in a cyber landscape where everyone seems to be wearing gang...
Lori Falce: Good cops have power to demand change
I have never known a bad cop. I’ve been a reporter for 33 years. I’ve known a lot of cops in that time. I’ve known young cops who were enthusiastic and idealistic. I’ve known veterans who were still moved deeply at bad crime scenes. I’ve known retired cops who carried...
Lori Falce: Seven breathless minutes
I frequently tell my son that more can happen in a short period of time than he thinks. This usually happens as I am pushing him to clean his room or bring down the laundry or take out the trash or empty the dishwasher. Seriously, the boy has very few...
Lori Falce: Trolleys, Star Trek and a pandemic
They call it “the trolley problem.” It’s a question that I first encountered in my very favorite course at Penn State — a small philosophy class with a professor who cared much less about the grade you earned than the things you thought and what they motivated you to do....
Lori Falce: We need to learn to argue
If there is one thing that the coronavirus pandemic cannot stifle, it is our voices. I see that every day in the letters that come through my inbox, and the comments that dangle from my online content like icicles. If anything, it seems one more side effect of this new...
Lori Falce: The problem with pseudoscience
I love science. A casual glance at my high school report card might make that hard to believe, but it’s true. If social studies is the mythology of how we came to be where we are today, science is the magic. The simple recipes of adding this element to that...
Lori Falce: Truth, math and politics
Do the math. It’s a pithy, sarcastic little phrase that says if you take all of your numbers, line them up and funnel them into the right columns, you will get the answer that you want. There is just one problem. Sometimes that is exactly what happens. The thing about...
Lori Falce: How do you say no to your mom?
My mother called me to ask if I had plans for the weekend. Being that it is a pandemic and there are no movies to attend or restaurants to patronize or museums to visit, no, I do not. “Great,” she said. “I can come see you.” It hurt to tell...
Lori Falce: The politics of ordering groceries
On Wednesday, my groceries were delivered. I had tried to get an Instacart window for more than a week. We didn’t have ham at my house for Easter because the earliest time I could get was Monday. So there I was, Monday morning, trying to focus on reading and research...
Lori Falce: Let’s get back to better than normal
We all can’t wait to get back to normal. This coronavirus shutdown is getting to everyone. We all want to get out of our houses, go back to work and be able to shop again like it’s an activity, maybe even a hobby, instead of a Navy SEAL excursion. We...
Quarantine Easter treats, dinner from the pantry
If you went shopping before schools closed and businesses started shutting down last month, you were probably worried about stocking up on things that would last a long time. You weren’t thinking about celebrating a holiday in quarantine. But as the coronavirus numbers have grown and the state has lengthened...
Lori Falce: Reluctant covid-19 homeschool lessons
I have never wanted to home-school. While I want my son to reach for knowledge, and I want to be his partner in finding it, I have never wanted to be his teacher. That is largely because I am all too aware of my strengths and my weaknesses, and how...
Lori Falce: Older Americans can’t be sacrificed
I have spent my life in the shadow of people who have lived more than I have. My grandma was 92 when she died. She taught me how to make the perfect chocolate cake and about facing the world with grace and dignity no matter what happened to you. My...
Lori Falce: Following covid-19 advice
Working from home is one of those things that sounds better in theory than in practice. What’s not to like, right? You can come to the 8:30 a.m. meeting in your pajamas. You can lie on your couch while you answer emails. You can have a real lunch instead of...
Lori Falce: Antidote to panic is information
My son is at home today, no doubt ignoring his vocabulary and the math homework he should be getting done in favor of battling zombies on his PlayStation. I did not keep him home because of coronavirus. Well, not because I am afraid of coronavirus. No, he is home because...
