My mom has more prizes named after her than your mom.
But seriously.
My mom, Sharon Drummond, died eight years ago this week. She was 51. Though she enjoyed several years of success as a writer, it pains my sisters and me to know that she should have enjoyed many more.
We were thrilled to learn that the Writers Guild of Alberta has launched a new award in her name. The Sharon Drummond Chapbook Prize — APPLY NOW OBVIOUSLY.
2012 In Review: The Year’s Top Health News
Sitting down sucks. Omega-3s are awesome. Organic foods…the jury’s sorta out. Of all the health news from 2012, a select few studies, recommendations, and controversies reigned supreme. I’m running down the most important stories of the year over at Prevention.com. Slideshows are hard, this news is important, go read it.
JSA [Journalism Service Announcement]
We’ve got plans to take over the world, so tell your wife/partner/sister/momma/yoga teacher/daughter/sommelier to check it out.
And if you have an eye on writing or a story idea you’d like to see published, I’m at katie.drummond@rodale.com. Just don’t pitch anything about pigeon hunting. They already did that.
gq:
Imaginary Lines from an Imaginary Hurricane Sandy Sex and the City Episode
Meanwhile uptown, Samantha was doing a different kind of blowing.
Later that day I got to thinking about how hard communication is even when the city is up and running. If I hadn’t heard from Mr. Big all last week, why was I expecting to hear from him tonight, when half of New York was without power? When it comes to dating, aren’t we always in the dark?
“Sandy? More like Hurricane Feelin’ Randy!”
It was then Charlotte decided that if hundreds of her fellow New Yorkers were out there in the cold, bringing supplies to evacuation centers, the least she could do was be bighearted and give Harry a helping hand.”
Charlotte: “Samantha! You didn’t call for two days! I had no idea if you were okay!”
Samantha: “Oh, I would say I was more than okay.”
Charlotte: “Did you stay dry?”
Samantha: “The opposite, in fact. I was wet. Wet all night long.”
Previous installment: Imaginary Lines from an Imaginary 9-11 Sex and the City Episode
America’s Solar Soldiers
I’ve got a piece in Global Post on the Pentagon’s green-energy push. Already, military-backed efforts have made remarkable strides (and ones that might soon trickle into the civilian and commercial realms). Not that it’s a walk in the park or anything, as Sharon Burke, one of the military’s key green energy leaders, tells me:
“Sometimes people [at the Pentagon] seem to have these magical inboxes that seal themselves up,” Burke says. “But we’re keeping at it, staying persistent, and we’re keeping this conversation on the table.”
‘My eyebrows are in love with you’
Nothing says “interesting story” like an eyebrow love affair.
Thanks to whoever left that remarkable comment on my story at Forbes, about a new transient electronics program (funded, in part, by DARPA) that’s developing devices capable of doing a given job — say, spying on foes or helping heal a wound — before disappearing into thin air.
I was lucky enough to profile the world’s most delightful genius over at Wired. Technically, Dr. Joachim Kohn is part of a Wired series called “World’s Most Wired,” because of his groundbreaking work in military-funded regenerative medicine. But trust me, he is also delightful and brilliant! Check out the story here and the rest of the WMW series here.
So Tegan and Sara are releasing a new single on Tuesday. Here’s the leaked performance.
When I was 12, my sister would play their demo tapes while she drove me to school. When I was 15, I found out that my high school guidance counselor was their mom. And immediately developed debilitating mental health problems that required twice-weekly high school guidance counseling.
Obviously, there is some higher power at work here. Of course, I don’t have romantic feelings for either of them or anything.
(Source: sojealousofsarassheets)
Addicted Troops Get Silent Treatment
The third (and final!) story in my three-part series at The Fix, which looked at addiction and substance abuse among military personnel and veterans.
Part III zeroes in on treatment efforts and progress, or (more often) the lack thereof. Serendipitously, it also ran the same day as an IOM report describing military substance abuse as “a public health crisis” and deriding the military’s outmoded, inconsistent treatment programs.
Check out the story here, and read The Fix if you don’t already. It really is a terrific publication, and it was an honor to do this reporting for them.
