Choose your own adventure: computer backup edition

You are sitting at your desk and the TV is on in the background.  You’re busy paying the bills online, and balancing your accounts.  You’re mostly ignoring the television, but start paying attention to one of those TV news ma… Read full post »

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Cary’s columns are a great way to learn about topics that are often beyond the context of my everyday life.  Drugs, mental illness, hoarding, relationships, you name it - he covers so many areas, and each one helps me learn something interesting every day.  Today, I’ll be… Read full post »

Today Cary touches on issues of foster care.  To first learn about foster care, it seems straightforward enough: it is when a child is temporarily cared for by adults different than his or her own parents.  How and why a child ends up in such a situation… Read full post »

Cary was working on his column, and something he wrote gave him pause.  He wrote, "we know that people who make themselves useful to others are happier, or do better... “ But then he wondered, well, do we? Do we really know this? He became concerned that… Read full post »

Borderline personality disorder.  It’s a curious name for an illness.  First, a definition: borderline personality disorder (BPD) is an emotional disorder, with symptoms that include emotional instability, distorted self-image and mood swings as well as a variety of others.  … Read full post »

There are some traits that clearly run in families.  In my husband’s family, it is the shockingly blue eyes, and in mine, it’s the curly hair.  There are also a whole set of traits and illnesses that feel like they must run in families, even if a… Read full post »

Today, Cary answers a letter about hooking up at a wedding.  So that got me wondering, just how common is the wedding-guest-hookup?

A quick search yielded tons of ideas for those looking find love (if only for one night) at a wedding.  Most of the lists are common sense-based,… Read full post »

Since 1970 with the passage of the Comprehensive Drug Abuse Prevention and Control Act, which included the Controlled Substance Act (CSA), the US has maintained several lists of controlled substances, called schedules.  These schedules are, in the most basic sense, what defines how illegal t… Read full post »

Cary's column today relates to one of the many difficult aspects of drug use - when children are removed from their home based on a parent's positive test for the use of currently illegal drugs.  The column mentions the Children's Bureau, which is a federal agency within
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Over the years, we've gotten to know quite a bit about Cary.  So likewise, I'll let you in on a few secrets about me.  There are a few facets to my professional life.  As you know, I'm an intern with Salon for Cary as his research associate.  Most… Read full post »

I will start by giving the disclosure that I am not a lawyer, and this is not legal advice. 

If you are writing a basic will, it is possible to find an attorney to do so for a relatively minor cost. If hiring a lawyer to write a… Read full post »

Schadenfreude is finding pleasure in others misfortune.  There are lots of places you can look to see versions of the definition. Try looking here, here and here.

But really for the best way to understand this silly-sounding word, let's have a song from Avenue Q (some… Read full post »

Hoarding

Hoarding seems to be getting a lot of attention at the moment.  Both A&E and TLC have shows focused on severe hoarding.   Hoarding  is the acquisition of, and inability to discard items even though they appear (to others) to have no value.  Hoarding is commonly…

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Hey there everyone.  My name is Stephannie and I'm going to be working with Cary Tennis.  I'm his intern, and I'm going to be writing companion pieces to the completely fabulous "Since You Asked" column. 

 Cary is going to continue giving great advice to your questions, and I'm g… Read full post »