When Time Magazine asked Taylor Swift to pose for the cover as their Person of the Year, her response was, “Can I bring my cat?” That’s how Swift and Benjamin Button (one of her three cats), ended up on the Dec. 25 cover of Time. It was a unique way for the multiple Grammy-winning singer to celebrate her 34th birthday (on Dec. 13). But this pop megastar is famous for doing … [Read more...]

When legendary photographer Sebastião Salgado took over family land in the state of Minas Gerais, Brazil, instead of the tropical paradise that he remembered as a child, he found a barren landscape devoid of wildlife. It was 1994 and he had just returned from a horrific assignment reporting on the genocide in Rwanda, he told The Guardian in 2015. “The land was as sick as I … [Read more...]

Last weekend, as the Sun ganged up with combustible Mars in Scorpio, the second SpaceX Starship test flight took place in Texas. Unlike that of its predecessor in April, this iteration’s liftoff was perfect. But Elon Musk’s $5 billion Starship suffered two explosions, ending its trial run in eight minutes. Still, it’s being hailed as progress, since this version made it to … [Read more...]

Mary Moody Emerson was an original. The eccentric aunt of Ralph Waldo Emerson, she had a great influence on the man often considered to be the greatest thinker of his time. Never married, Aunt Mary stepped in to care for her brother William’s children after he died. She set high intellectual standards for them and demanded original thinking, always encouraging them to do what … [Read more...]

A few years back, I built an altar for Dia de Los Muertos to honor my parents. We have no Aztec or Spanish blood in our lineage, but I’ve always loved the tradition. Creating the altar was a labor of love that involved hauling a lot of stuff to the Sherman Heights Community Center, including candles and marigolds. But it was worth it to share Mom and Dad’s lives with others via … [Read more...]