Editor's Letter
July 03, 2008
Connecting with nature
There’s something really appealing about getting away from summer city life. A muggy evening spent on a rickety wooden porch complete with a cold beer, a small group of friends and new acquaintances, crickets providing background music … so that’s why people take off to lake houses and cabins in the woods on weekends.
June 26, 2008
Investing in romance
It started last November with a dress, and it hasn’t let up yet. I just picked up the $53, sequined, took-four-weeks-to-get-dyed shoes. Before that it was hosting a bridal shower/bachelorette party. Soon to come are a hotel room and travel arrangements. And there’s always the gifts. Whew.
June 19, 2008
New tenants and critters
A brand-new storefront in downtown Columbia isn’t a rare occurrence. Recently, it seems businesses are moving in or closing up shop at a moment’s notice. Still, a few weeks ago, when walking by a Ninth Street store that I’d never seen before, I surprised myself by stopping for a while to peek in the windows. This was necessary to decipher the entertaining messages and pictures decorating the colorful fabric circles arranged on the wall. I never knew window shopping in mid-Missouri could be so exciting.
June 12, 2008
Not so far from home
June 05, 2008
Conquering age and acne
Harrison Ford and his well-established Hollywood cohorts are just like the rest of us. Rather than relocating to a warmer state, hitting the golf course a few days a week and clocking out of the working world upon turning 65, they’re still pulling in millions.
May 29, 2008
Cybercrime gets noticed
My first e-mail address and AOL Instant Messenger screen name originated when I was in seventh grade — a decade ago when dial-up was considered an acceptable way to reach the World Wide Web. After school, I’d use my family’s computer to chat with friends about nothing of importance. Even though my dad was often sitting in his recliner just a few feet away, he had no idea what messages were being exchanged.
May 22, 2008
Rocking out in Columbia
I’ve always preferred to be the person behind the scenes. I’m pretty sure this stemmed from a stint as a stage manager back in fifth grade where I got to cue lights and props in a student production. I didn’t want anything to do with actually being on stage or in the spotlight.
May 15, 2008
Happy Birthday, Vox
Birthdays are a time for celebration and reflection. It’s especially true for the big decade markers — 30, 40, 50 and beyond seem to be those times when people take stock of where they are and where they thought they would be. My guess is that the average 10-year-old is more concerned about the color of his or her birthday cake than how the upcoming fifth-grade year will shape his or her life.
May 08, 2008
Let it burn
I first learned about Burning Man, an eight-day long music and art celebration, from a documentary that came out years ago. The event is hot in more ways than one. It takes place in the scorching heat of the Nevada desert, and, as its name suggests, each year a giant wooden sculpture gets torched to the ground. Add to that the eclectic mix of music, muddy people, no running water and no source of sustenance except what you bring yourself, and what could be nothing more than an extra-long Coachella with some trippy flames becomes a downright adventure in self-reliance. Well, self-reliance plus entertainment.
May 01, 2008
Buying democracy
Have you found yourself wearing extra-dark sunglasses lately so you don’t have to look petitioners directly in the eyes? I’ve found it helps prevent pestering.
April 24, 2008
Celebrating LGBT pride
Since coming here, I’ve heard a lot about the diversity of Columbia. It’s the liberal island in a conservative sea of rural mid-Missouri; it’s filled with arts and culture and a variety of ethnicities.
April 17, 2008
School of gossip
Students in the J-School are, when you think about it, getting trained to be professional gossips. We’re being taught to casually overhear conversations for potential stories, gain a source’s trust to get the best interview possible and then report back to the world at large with gusto.
April 10, 2008
Don’t go in the water
In Florida, where the Atlantic Ocean and Gulf of Mexico breezes keep the air clean, commutes are of no concern to residents. When you can’t see a haze of smog permeating city air, it’s hard to understand the daily impact cars have on the environment. Likewise, recycling has been slow to catch on: My Orlando-dwelling parents recycle aluminum cans, but bottles and newspapers still go in the garbage.
April 03, 2008
Dirty no more
Touring Wal-Mart’s aisles in search of replacement razor blades, I was shocked — impressed, even — to see a wide selection of condoms, lubricants and other sex supplies flanking modern life’s other necessities. They weren’t even enclosed in locked cases, as they are in many drug stores, which often renders a purchase daunting and embarrassing to those of us shyer about our sexual endeavors.
March 27, 2008
Helping near and far
Growing up, my mother always had high hopes that our family would start volunteering with Habitat For Humanity. Our sturdy, cinder block ranch house in a middle-class Orlando subdivision contrasted sharply with a neighborhood less than three miles away. Many of its homes had tarp-covered roofs atop rickety wood boards. Habitat’s volunteers, which eventually included my mom, built these residents hurricane-withstanding homes resembling our own.
March 20, 2008
A touch of early success
Las Vegas promises that what happens in Vegas stays in Vegas. Unfortunately, digital cameras and gossipy ex-boyfriends have ensured my Sin City exploits joined tacky souvenirs on the voyage home with me. In fact, the only thing that did manage to stay in Vegas was my money.
March 13, 2008
It’s more than just advice
They say travel broadens a person. But the pleasures inherent to exploration also come with a healthy dose of pain. Heading away from home requires research: You have to figure out where you want to go (no small task, given the myriad wonders of our planet), figure out how you’ll get there and what in the world you will do once you arrive.
February 28, 2008
Finding the truth
An uncanny ability to fall asleep during everything from the loudest action scenes of the last Star Wars movies to the most poignant moments of Schindler’s List has left me fearful of movie theaters. Once the lights dim, I panic for a second while I wonder if the next two hours I just locked myself into will amount to anything more than an expensive nap.
February 21, 2008
Embracing the future
The first time I heard the Drive-By Truckers, it was in an ex-boyfriend’s 10-year-old Honda Civic. Their breakthrough Southern Rock Opera had just been released. The song fit so well with driving on an Atlanta street covered by trees drooping with the weight of summertime kudzu and flanked by rows of rusted-out warehouses that we both wanted to stay in the car and drive in the heat to listen just a little while longer.
February 14, 2008
We need to see some ID
Anyone who’s had to wait in long lines at the DMV and provide seemingly endless amounts of paperwork knows what a pain it is to get a photo ID. Inevitably, the DMV is miles away from anywhere.
