Tag Archives: Washington Post

Books & Reading, Current Affairs, Food & Drink, Love & Relationships, Pleasures, Science & Health

Like many men, I had few close friends. So I began a friendship quest.

My month-long social experiment was both challenging and gratifying

Perspective by Leonard Felson, July 28, 2023 at 7:00 a.m. EDT

(Elizabeth von Oehsen/The Washington Post)

Out of the blue last fall, an acquaintance emailed me. “I want to start jogging, but I need someone to run with,” he wrote. I hadn’t run in years, but the possibility that jogging might lead to a friendship was enough for me to say yes.

Even before the pandemic frayed our social lives, Americans had fewer close friends than 30 years ago, a KFF study in 2018 showed. Another survey found adults were talking and relying on each other for support less often than in the past and feeling more left out. And men in particular tend to face a harder time than women making and maintaining friendships, research suggests, and it appears to only be getting worse.

Source: https://www.washingtonpost.com/wellness/2023/07/28/how-i-reconnected-with-friends/

Arts & Humanities, Books & Reading, Libraries, Memories & History, Politics

Opinion | Book bans raise the question: Have we forgotten what a library is for? – The Washington Post

By Deborah E. Mikula and Loren Khogali, September 30, 2022 at 12:18 p.m. EDT

The Patmos Library on Aug. 11 in Jamestown, Mich. (Joshua Lott/The Washington Post)

Deborah E. Mikula is executive director of the Michigan Library Association. Loren Khogali is executive director of the ACLU of Michigan.

Imagine a town without a library.

In August, people in Jamestown, Mich., just outside Grand Rapids, signaled with their votes that they would rather defund — and possibly shutter — their only public library than keep books with LGBTQ themes on the shelves.

The impact of such a vote is deeply concerning. And the place from which it stems — a small but vocal minority trying to dictate what others can and cannot read — is even more troubling.

Editor’s Note: Read more, see link below for original item…

Source: https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2022/10/02/jamestown-patmos-library-defund-book-bans-lgbtq/

Books & Reading, Current Affairs, Memories & History, Times They Are A-Changing

Opinion | No, the Constitution is not ‘neutral’ on abortion – The Washington Post

The vision of getting the courts out of the abortion-deciding business sounds so reasonable, so alluring. It is also wrong, misleading and dangerous.

By Ruth Marcus, Deputy editorial page editor, Post 12/07/2021

Editor’s Note: Read more, see link below for original item…

Photo by CQF-Avocat on Pexels.com

Abortion is different from these examples, of course, because it is not mentioned in the Constitution. But that does not make abortion unique among constitutional rights. There are any number of rights that the court has long found fall within the bounds of constitutional protection even though they are not specifically mentioned in the text. The right to travel. The right of parents to educate their children as they choose. The right to contraception. The right to private sexual conduct. The right to marry a person of another race. The right to marry a person of the same gender.

Source: Opinion | No, the Constitution is not ‘neutral’ on abortion – The Washington Post

Current Affairs, Memories & History, Religion & Spirit, Science & Health

What it felt like to live through a year of the coronavirus pandemic – Washington Post

Stories of what it felt like to live through the shutdown. Dancing alone, canceling weddings, missing touch, missing one another and feeling alone together.

The coronavirus pandemic brought out stories of profound grief and heroic resolve.

These are not those stories.

Instead, at this one-year mark, Style reporters set out to note some of the other, countless emotions and personal losses: The almost-9-year-old who never felt like she got to be 8. The 102-year-old who lives in mandated isolation. The massage therapist and her customers who simply crave touch.

The couple who postponed their big wedding — and may have to postpone it again. The single person losing her last sense of social contact. The DJ who spins for an empty room. The college freshman who has never set foot on campus.

Shutdowns, lockdowns, quarantines — whatever you called this long and lost time, these stories acknowledge the persistent disconnect, all that absence, and what it feels like to live in a suspended state of mind.

Source: What it felt like to live through a year of the coronavirus pandemic – Washington Post

Current Affairs, Food & Drink, Science & Health, Travel

CDC issues guidelines telling the vaccinated what they can do – The Washington Post

The CDC said people who are two weeks past their final shot face little risk if they visit indoors with unvaccinated members of a single household. (The Washington Post)
The CDC said people who are two weeks past their final shot face little risk if they visit indoors with unvaccinated members of a single household. (The Washington Post)

Long-awaited government guidelines loosen restrictions on how people can socialize, and see their grandchildren after they’re fully inoculated.

Federal health officials released guidance Monday that gives fully vaccinated Americans more freedom to socialize and pursue routine activities, providing a pandemic-weary nation a first glimpse of what a new normal may look like in the months ahead.

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said people who are two weeks past their final shot face little risk if they visit indoors with unvaccinated members of a single household at low risk of severe disease, without wearing masks or distancing. That would free many vaccinated grandparents who live near their unvaccinated children and grandchildren to gather for the first time in a year. The guidelines continue to discourage long-distance travel, however.

The CDC also said fully vaccinated people can gather indoors with those who are also fully vaccinated. And they do not need to quarantine, or be tested after exposure to the coronavirus, as long as they have no symptoms.

Source: CDC issues guidelines telling the vaccinated what they can do – The Washington Post

Science & Health, Travel

How to plan for summer travel in 2021 – The Washington Post

(iStock/ Washington Post illustration)
(iStock/ Washington Post illustration)
While we may be traveling this summer, it won’t be the “old normal.” Here are travel experts’ predictions.
By Natalie B. Compton

February 24

After a particularly brutal winter in isolation, summer travel dreams feel like a glimmer of hope shimmering on the distant horizon.

Source: How to plan for summer travel in 2021 – The Washington Post

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