Lori Duff Writes
Nice is, well, nice, but sometimes it honestly doesn’t get the job done. “Why don’t you sit down for a moment?” “Why don’t you let me do that?” “You’ve been working so hard! You should let someone else step in!” These are all very kind things to say to someone[1] but they are unlikely to…
My dog, Lincoln, seems to have a sense for when I want[1] to get up. I might be on the sofa, and as soon as my weight shifts he hops up and snuggles against my leg, chin on my thigh. At night, he sleeps on or between my feet, spooning his curled-up body against the…
I have lived in the south for the vast majority of my life, but I do not consider myself a native southerner. There are many things that I love about the south, including but not limited to the beauty of the landscape, the relatively slow pace of living, and the fact that very little of…
I first published this years ago. I was nervous about it, given the conservative values of the community I live in. I’m happy (proud?) to say that the response was largely positive. If anyone had anything negative to say they kept it to themselves. Good. Cuz this mama bear would have come out swinging. A…
I have a friend who, for purposes of this story, we will call Mandi. Mandi and her office friends treat themselves, from time to time, to Starbucks. One of them will order for all of them on the Starbucks app and then go and pick it up and bring it to the office. Sweet, fru-fru…
I was in a cab[1] going from the airport to my hotel. The driver was a friendly guy, asking me about my trip, where I was from. He pointed out several local landmarks along the way, and made suggestions about restaurants and side trips. I chittered back at him, doing my best to hold up…
My life is fairly stressful. I know, I know. I’m not alone. We’ve all got our stuff to worry about. Health, family, jobs, burnout, money, politics, sports teams behaving as their million dollar salaries would justify…there are plenty of things to get your stress hormones pumping for. Which is why, those three and a half…
War has got to be the stupidest way imaginable to resolve disputes. I mean, think about it. If you had two six-year-olds on a school playground arguing about whose turn it was on the swings, and the argument got heated and one of them threw a punch and they ended up on the ground, what…
I saw La Boheme at the Atlanta Opera the other night.[1] La Boheme, by Giacomo Puccini[2] is one of the most popular operas and likely, even if you hate opera, some of it would sound familiar to you. Like most operas, the plot is stupid. Here it is in a cynical nutshell: four young men…
I got my nails done the other day, which I’m sure you don’t care about because, well, why would you. But it makes a good prelude to my point, so bear with me. I am deep at my core a straight arrow, so my acts of rebellion come out in small, harmless gestures like getting…