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Lori Falce Columns category, Page 12

Pope Francis, first Latin American pontiff, dies at 88
Lori Falce: Pink sprinkle doughnuts and rules
Explaining the rules to a child isn’t easy. Kids learn fast that a cute grin and an “I love you, Mommy” can be a shortcut around a “no.” They learn just as fast that a well-timed fit in the right venue can motivate an exasperated, embarrassed parent to give some...
Lori Falce: Women with 4 jobs exist, O’Reilly
Bill O’Reilly doesn’t think working four jobs is a thing people do. While live-tweeting during the Democratic presidential debate on Tuesday, the former Fox News host dismissed a statement from candidate and former congressman Beto O’Rourke. “Beto says he met a woman working FOUR jobs. And raising a special needs...
Lori Falce: Bugs are little problem with big lesson
I sat at my desk, reading the story, feeling tiny pinpricks of dread running down my spine. It wasn’t a crime story — something bloody and unthinkable. It wasn’t the latest volley in the political war of words. It wasn’t a tragic human interest tale of heartbreak and loss. Nope....
Lori Falce: Vaping defense is up in smoke
Vaping was supposed to be better than smoking. That was the idea. It was vapor. Not smoke. All the nicotine with none of the risk. What could go wrong? A lot. People are dying. Not from cancer that they contracted after 40 years of sucking on smoke. Not from old...
Lori Falce: No offense intended
I don’t mean to offend. I try hard not to make people feel like I’m targeting them personally when I write. My goal is to make people think, not wince. I want to plant a seed and water it and see what grows, rather than have people close down and...
Lori Falce: The real magic in the library
The magic of Harry Potter is very real. The words that are inked onto the pages of four-inch thick books? They have power. They just don’t have it the way the Rev. Dan Reehill of St. Edward Catholic School in Nashville thinks they do. Reehill had the books pulled out...
Lori Falce: The death penalty shouldn’t be easy
I struggle with the death penalty. I want to be the kind of person who feels forgiveness in my heart and embraces the redemptive possibility of prison. I’m not. I’d like to feel the certainty of those who are all-in on the eye-for-an-eye aspects of capital punishment. I’m not there...
Lori Falce: The blindsiding of a friend’s suicide
We hadn’t talked — really talked — in months. Maybe years. It’s one of those things where you lose track. Social media had become our conduit, where we left the occasional “oh that’s so sweet” on a picture of each other’s kids or caught up on job changes and new...
Lori Falce: What about safety?
On Wednesday night, I sat in the auditorium with other parents whose kids were about to embark on the adventure that is middle school. We learned where the buses will pick the kids up and why our teachers won’t give us packets of schoolwork for sick days or vacations. We...
Lori Falce: The dangers of sautéing garlic
“We are safe and sound.” A friend posted the alert to Facebook late Sunday. She wanted to let us know that she was not one of those killed at the Gilroy Garlic Festival in California. She wanted to let us know that her family wasn’t being treated for bullet wounds....
Lori Falce: Presidential debates are beauty pageants
We are about to play the next round of everyone’s favorite game show, “Who Wants to Be President?” And the answer in the Democratic Party continues to be the same. Everyone. Yes, we are a year out from the 2020 convention, but it would be great if the CNN debates...
Lori Falce: Immigrants are like foster children
My grandma could have been a German spy. Or at least, people might have thought that. She was just a teenager when Pearl Harbor was bombed and the U.S. was thrown into the deep end of war. She was an all-American beauty with a Ginger Rogers smile. What she didn’t...
Lori Falce: Schools teach facts despite beliefs
I don’t believe in math. People insist to me that math is a real thing. I don’t buy it. I think math is a conspiracy — a plot against those of us who live our lives in sentences strung out of words rather than equations and numbers. I didn’t get...
Lori Falce: Is your kid just a piece of wood?
The saddest commentary on our education system that I have ever heard didn’t come from a politician or a pundit. It came from the woman who taught my sister in kindergarten. “Everyone brings us their children like lumps of wood for us to carve into something. They all want us...
Lori Falce: Newspapers are daily memorial to fallen journalists
At 2:34 p.m., I am usually sitting in a planning meeting with an assortment of editors talking about what is going where in the next day’s edition. I am not under my desk deciding whether I should call 911 or worrying if that would be loud enough to draw a...
Lori Falce: Political cartoons pack visual punch
I’m a big believer in the power of words. I think that words convey things in a way that is truly amazing. They don’t just transmit information, like the 1’s and 0’s of binary code, delivering a copy of this data to that receiver. That would be enough to still...
Lori Falce: Trump, Dems can’t just preach to choir
I learned the best lesson about politics from a missionary. I was covering a church event. The missionary had come to town to promote a book. It didn’t go well, and she pegged me early on as someone who wasn’t there because I identified with her message. Maybe the notebook...
Lori Falce: LGBTQ still need allies, support
We went to the grocery store to buy tomatoes and bread, and on the way in, my friend and I would check the community bulletin board in the entry. It would be filled with posters for bingo and ads for babysitting services and used cars. The flyer we tacked up...
Lori Falce: Summer vacation spells new way to learn
Getting my kid out of bed for school requires an act of Congress and the jaws of life. Like a bull alligator, he will twist away, snarling, rolling deeper into the covers, ready to snap at anyone who dares disturb him. I am about to have a reprieve from my...
Lori Falce: What can Brown v. Board of Education do for you?
It’s a question that has been asked of many judicial nominees in recent years. “Is Brown v. the Board of Education settled law?” More surprising than the question is the lack of answer. Lately, what has always been a softball is being bounced on the fingertips like a hot potato....
Lori Falce: Our heroes shouldn’t be human shields
I don’t want my son to be a hero. I don’t want to have someone come to me and tell me how brave he was as he stood up to someone with a weapon and a grudge and a message for the world. I don’t care if he grows up...
Lori Falce: Dr. Phil’s Slippery Rock mistake is about labels
How important is the school name on your diploma? For some, it might be worth a lot more than the paper it’s printed on. According to the National Center for Education Statistics, the graduates picking up diplomas this weekend started their freshman years paying about $17,000 for a year at...
Lori Falce: Give 2020 election an NFL Draft makeover
All over America, people are doing their research and looking at needs versus wants and paying attention to trends and a final goal and assessing the pool of potential that could get the job done. And unfortunately almost none of that has to do with the 2020 presidential election. Nope,...
Lori Falce: Mueller report proves we lost Russian info war
Information warfare. That is the term Special Council Robert Mueller used in his report detailing the two year investigation into Russian hacking and possible collusion or obstruction by the Trump campaign or administration. Information warfare. The weaponization of people’s thoughts and ideas. The strategic deployment of a mixture of facts,...
Lori Falce: Biden uproar shows consent, intent matter
We have all been there. A sweaty hand shake that lasts forever. Aunt Margaret’s aggressively red lipstick kisses. The airplane seatmate who falls asleep on your shoulder. It’s all about the overlapping circles of a Venn diagram. It’s where consent meets comfort and intentions. It’s easy to make this about...


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