Bankruptcy, it’s been said in these pages, is a debt-laden person’s least-worst option. It doesn’t take you all the way down to the ground, but it takes you to hovering just above it. So what’s that terrifying ride like, and how do you climb back up? We asked...
Several months ago, I stumbled upon a Reddit thread that chronicles the intense — and downright illegal — disciplinary actions implemented by an unspecified California retail store [sic]: “My girlfriend works at a retail store in California. They’re supposed to ask customers if they want to buy...
We jogged to the gym together. We spotted each other on the bench press and at the squat rack. We pushed each other to go a little heavier on the weights, or a few more reps. We made fun of other guys’ bad lifting form. We even...
A public display of affection — more commonly referred to as PDA — is a bit like the smell of a fart: If it’s your own, it’s inexplicably pleasant. If it’s someone else’s, it stinks of crap. In 2016, researchers looked into why people are so repulsed...
The year 2019 had scarcely begun when a few lucky fans ran into Lionel Messi, arguably the top soccer player in the world at the moment. He was all too happy to stop for a few selfies — selfies that conclusively showed he was driving without a...
If you don’t care that your desk is messy, you should. Or at least, that’s what a recent study from the University of Michigan tells us. To figure out to what degree the messiness of an office affected someone’s perception of the office holder, three researchers took two empty...
“Everyone is getting older,” Alan Castel, a professor of psychology at UCLA, tells me when I call to talk about his new book, Better with Age: The Psychology of Successful Aging. He’s right, of course: Literally speaking, every single person, from the moment they’re conceived to the...
It’s the perfect morning: The birds are chirping, the sun is shining and only three weeks in, you’re absolutely certain that 2019 will be your year. But then something unfortunate happens — you spill coffee on your shirt; you get a parking ticket; your boss decides that...
Bryan Cooper married his high school girlfriend when he was 18; seven years later, he was a father to twins. Following his wife’s difficult pregnancy, the two decided they were done with kids. He opted to get a vasectomy, since it’s less invasive than his wife having...
As a heavily-tattooed person, I’m constantly told that I’m going to regret my tattoos when I get older. I was 18 when I got my first tattoo — an all-seeing eye on my left shoulder blade — and my mom has since taken every opportunity to assure...
Everyone has at least one forgotten embarrassing moment that creeps into their head as they attempt to fall asleep. I myself have a bunch, which might explain why many of my nights are spent previewing Ian’s Top 10 Most Cringeworthy Moments on the backs of my eyelids....
Few things in life are as alluring as travel. For one thing, you’re actually leaving the ennui — not to mention all the responsibilities — of your current life behind! And of course, Instagram is full of wish-your-sucker-butt-was-here photos; culturally, too, more than a few writers have...
