The time has finally come: This Christmas will be the first I’ll be spending with my partner’s family, and not only her close family — every last aunt, uncle, niece, nephew, grandma, grandpa and that one lady who’s somehow lumped into the bunch, too. Which has presented me with...
White elephant. Yankee swap. Dirty Santa. Whatever you want to call it, there’s a decent chance you’ll be attending some variation of a gag gift exchange in the next couple of weeks — an event that can be oddly stressful and strangely competitive. All eyes are locked on a...
In this installment of our “What Makes Me a…” column, we asked five people what they think makes someone a good gift-giver. In the end, it really does seem that it’s the thought that counts… unless you’re staff writer Tracy Moore, in which case it’s asking her...
On the sole of your foot, right in the center of the heel. According to the ancient practice of reflexology, that’s the zone of the foot that corresponds to the genitals. Further forward, in the arch of your foot, right before the ball, is the zone that...
On one hand, anyone who’s given a presentation or struggled through a math problem knows the benefits of vocally pumping themselves up in the bathroom mirror, or cursing their way through the equation. On the other, if anyone witnessed you muttering your way through your bills, alone...
So you’ve got your apartment reasonably clean, snacks on hand and a spare toothbrush ready to go? Congratulations, you’re most of the way to doing a good job of entertaining a lady at home. But there’s still one key area that should give you pause: your bed....
There’s an old adage among male weightlifters: “curls for the girls.” The curls in this usage are obviously bicep curls, and the phrase is meant to convey that they’re a mostly useless exercise since biceps aren’t particularly functional—people have little use for them in day-to-day activity, so...
They say living well is the best revenge, but what about living well and also imagining harm befalling your enemies? Can that be part of a mature, healthy anger-management system? Maybe you’d never hit anyone in real life, but in your head, you imagine every jerk that...
In the late 1980s, author Arlie Russell Hochschild coined the term “the second shift” for working mothers. While women had made considerable gains in the labor market, their progress in the domestic sphere lagged woefully behind. Men still weren’t doing their share of housework, forcing working women...
When deciding to shack up with someone and split expenses, you will hear all manner of advice on how to proceed. “Throw all in,” your Depression-raised grandpa will tell you, implying that 100 percent financial merging is the only way to really commit to someone. “Keep it...
It’s the sort of bleak cultural folly you almost have to be a woman to appreciate: According to a new report, men in Britain are more likely to be overweight and therefore more likely to get diabetes than women, but for a number of reasons, they are...
For some reason, our society values socializing with people who purportedly love us, especially at the holidays. But sometimes the people we love — or moreover, the people they love — can be the absolute worst. And sometimes, the best way to deal with such people (in-laws; sister’s boyfriends; that estranged...