Articles

Want to Protect Yourself? Don't Buy a Gun

Want to Protect Yourself? Don't Buy a Gun

In the wake of yet another shooting, people immediately wanted to know what influenced and motivated another young man to open fire on a crowd, this time during a July 4 parade. As usual, their curiosity stemmed in part from a belief that if we can simply identify the next probable shooter in time, we can prevent the next massacre. In other words, we can make sure that only good guys, not the bad guys, get to have guns.

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Electric Cars: What Do Women Want?

Electric Cars: What Do Women Want?

As I walk around Portland, Oregon, these days, I see more electric cars on the road, and a fair number of them have female drivers. This is surprising based on what we know about electric vehicle sales in the past. According to a 2021 report from Hedges and Company, in the year before the pandemic, 75 percent of all-electric vehicles across the board were sold to men.

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Electric Vehicles: The Imperfect Solution We Need Right Now

Electric Vehicles: The Imperfect Solution We Need Right Now

As I walk around Portland, Oregon, these days, I see more electric cars on the road, and a fair number of them have female drivers. This is surprising based on what we know about electric vehicle sales in the past. According to a 2021 report from Hedges and Company, in the year before the pandemic, 75 percent of all-electric vehicles across the board were sold to men.

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Single male looking for love? Better vote for Biden | Houston Chronicle

Single male looking for love? Better vote for Biden | Houston Chronicle

I’m happily married but I’m good at matchmaking, mostly because I’ve learned to ask the right questions. These days one question tops the list: Who are you supporting for president?

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It's hard for parents to cut screen time for toddlers. But parenting is even harder if they don't | Dallas Morning News

It's hard for parents to cut screen time for toddlers. But parenting is even harder if they don't | Dallas Morning News

More than a decade ago, I wrote a memoir chronicling my experience raising a child with little to no television or screen time. I had been hooked on TV throughout my childhood and wanted to raise my son differently. It wasn’t easy to do at the time, but keeping young children away from screens in 2020 looks far more difficult, thanks to the countless handheld screens that never leave our sight.

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An Unexpected Response | Published in The Truth of Memoir by Kerry Cohen

An Unexpected Response | Published in The Truth of Memoir by Kerry Cohen

I grew up in a family of what could easily be called a colorful cast of characters. I often thought we should all be in a book, but I didn’t consider writing that book until I became a parent. As a new mother, I was obsessed with the role that television played in the lives of families since I had been hooked on the plug-in drug most of my life. I knew I had to write about it.

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Imperfect Messengers | Sunday Oregonian

Imperfect Messengers | Sunday Oregonian

I love our city’s bumper stickers. You can find everything from “My God Can Beat Up Your God” to my personal favorite, “I used to be indecisive, but now I’m not so sure.” They provide a welcome diversion in rush-hour traffic.

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Free from Teletubbies | Parentguide News

Free from Teletubbies | Parentguide News

When I was pregnant, my husband and I argued about what to name our child, because the name I liked had also been the name of my husband’s first dog. We went back and forth about it and myriad other issues, as well, except for one. I knew with certainty that I didn’t want our child to watch any television, even videos, until he was 6 years old. After that, I planned to limit my child’s TV watching to two hours a week. I suppose it was extreme, but I wanted our family to be close and connected, and for our child to know those around him better than he knew the Teletubbies.

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TV for Tots | Sunday Oregonian

TV for Tots | Sunday Oregonian

Poor Disney. It seems that its Baby Einstein DVD series might not be a magic and miraculous invention to make babies smarter, after all. If Frederick Zimmerman and Dimitri Christakis’ latest research out the University of Washington is accurate, then babies acquire language better by interacting with real people instead of staring at a screen. What a concept! No wonder Disney is so upset.

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Mommy and Me | Algonkian

Mommy and Me | Algonkian

I’d always longed for a Brady Bunch family, complete with a Florence Henderson mother, all neat and orderly, pleasing and perfect. Much of my childhood was spent in front of the television set, so I’d seen enough TV families to know what a “normal” mother was — and it sure wasn’t mine. In fact, all my life people have said to me, “Your mom’s a real character.” This was usually after my mother had done something memorable, like showing up at a city council meeting to protest a high-rise building. “We don’t need another phallic symbol designed by males insecure with their genitalia,” she once shouted at the mayor.

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