Health Tips Line

It’s been 35 years since I was in high school. And yet, multiple nights a year, I find myself roaming those halls once again. The details shift slightly each time, but the gist is always the same: I walk into school only to discover that I have a final exam coming up in English (sometimes it’s history)—a class I had no idea I was enrolled in and therefore haven’t shown up to once the entire year. How am I going to pull this off? Will the teacher realize she hasn’t seen me all year and fail me automatically? I don’t even know where the classroom is! The panic is so overwhelmingly real, and I start reprimanding myself for having been so irresponsible and for putting myself in what feels like an impossible situation. And then, just like that, I wake up. I’m so relieved … but also so rattled. Granted, I wasn’t the best student, and I cut my fair share of classes back in the day, but I was never that clueless. Why does my subconscious ...

I’ll never forget the gut punch of scrolling through Instagram one night before bed (just because I’m a health writer doesn’t mean I always have the healthiest habits) and seeing it: a picture of my entire group of close girl friends out to dinner, toasting to celebrate a birthday. Everyone was in the picture … except me . It was such a shock that I, a woman well into adulthood, burst into tears so loud that my husband came running in from the next room. As I wept, I frantically scrolled back through texts to see if I’d somehow missed an invite. Did I mute the group text by accident? Did my email send it to spam? Were hackers or aliens involved?  Nope. I just wasn’t invited.  The next day, when I saw one of the women, I gingerly asked how the party was. She looked at me sharply and sighed, “I knew that was going to hurt your feelings, but you need to get over it. Not everyone can be invited to everything.”  That hurt so...

Scanning documents and photos sometimes seems pretty old-school, like sending a fax. But it’s surprising how often you need a scanner. Maybe your bank needs a signature, you have to scan W-2s and pay stubs for a mortgage application or you need to scan and save receipts for your home business. I usually discover I need a scanner soon after I’ve congratulated myself for offloading that ugly old printer-scanner combo that was gathering dust in my spare bedroom. Depending on the document that needs scanning and how important I think the quality needs to be, I typically take a picture on my phone, then text or email it to the recipient, or go to FedEx or the UPS Store and have them do it. Well, color me shocked to learn that I have had a scanner on my phone this entire time! Like, a real scanner that actually scans—not takes a picture that I have to crop and try to fix the lighting and shadows and then pray that the recipient will take pity on my very substandard offerin...

Twenty-five years goes by in an instant. On Sept. 11, 2001, four planes were hijacked and pointed directly at the heart of the country, and life hasn’t been the same since. Though time can have a dulling effect, pushing those memories into a safe corner of one’s mind or lengthening the time between them, the awful visuals and lived experiences never go away. It’s hard to believe, but a third of Americans were born after 9/11. But the effects of the attack —an enhanced surveillance state, increased airport security and military incursions around the world—are felt by everyone. Universal, too, are the stories of heroism, friendship and sacrifice that will forever mark that sad day. With the 25th anniversary of 9/11 upon us, we put together a list of some of the most important journalism that took us through the day as it happened or examined it from the perspective of time. Ahead, we have 10 remarkable stories about Sept. 11, 2001. Some have been celebrated f...

I firmly believe that the only good thing about the end of summer is the beginning of football season . Though I’m a die-hard New York Giants fan (it’s been a rough few years, but things are gonna turn around!), I’ll watch any and every game I can. On Sundays—and Monday and Thursday nights—from Week 1 through the postseason, you’ll find me near a TV, very likely yelling at the announcers. But even if the extent of your football knowledge is the name of the team your family roots for, you’ve seen the huddle: The action ends, the players wander back toward one another, and suddenly they’re standing shoulder to shoulder in a little circle. There’s some serious discussion, a few nods, and then they break apart and race to their positions. It happens over and over, in every football game. It’s such a familiar part of the sport that most of us never stop to wonder about it. But why do football players huddle? As it turns out, this f...