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8 Thoughts I Had While Getting My First Professional Massage
Last Saturday—October 12—was my one-year wedding anniversary. My wife and I made a whole day out of it, doing lunch, dinner and getting our staycation on at a hotel in downtown Washington, D.C., and hitting up a speakeasy for the nightcap. One thing we did early in the day was a couple’s massage at a…
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Looking for an Unconventional Way to Give Back to Your Alma Mater? Take The Homecoming Challenge
At my daughter’s elementary school, they have a pretty cool program that has the potential to pay dividends far down the road. When you get to fifth grade, you are paired with a kindergarten buddy, and every few days during your fifth-grade year, you and your buddy get to hang out and do projects together.…
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This Is My Third Season Not Watching the NFL. Here's How My Life Has Changed Since I Stopped
Back in 2017, I decided to give up watching NFL games for various reasons. Chief among them was that I didn’t like how the NFL was treating Colin Kaepernick in the wake of his nonviolent protests against police brutality and the (what appeared to me to be clear) collusion among team owners to keep him…
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Filed Under 'Marriage': My Wife Steals My Cool Clothes So She Can Get All the Cool Points
I’m coming up on a year of marriage next month—Oct. 12, to be exact—and the year has flown by. Like I assume most couples do on the eve of that first year anniversary, we’ve both reflected (together and separately) on our journey into marriage and the year we’ve had. It hasn’t resulted in any grand…
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So I Guess Nike Doesn’t Actually Care If I Get the Package They Shipped To Me, Huh?
They may not have the most iconic and recognizable logo of all time (I’m sure the folks involved in that debate argue about this frequently), but Nike is absolutely near the top. Should you decide to look at folks’ feet all day long, I’d wager that you’d see more Nike swooshes (also called the Nike…
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Already an Awesome HBCU, Spelman College Receives Funding for STEM Center; Becomes Awesomer
Spelman College, the all-women historically black college located in Atlanta, was recently ranked as the best historically black college or university (HBCU) by U.S. News & World Report. Well, it looks like that train of black excellence will not be slowing down any time soon. The college recently received a $2 million grant from the…
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Joan Johnson, Who Co-Founded Johnson Products and Thus Co-Helped Us Live Our Best Black Lives, Has Died at 89
Universal blackness suffered a tremendous loss last week when Joan Johnson—who along with husband, George Johnson, founded Johnson Products—passed away at age 89. Johnson Products, which brought to us such omnipresent hair products as Afro Sheen, Ultra Sheen, and Gentle Treatment, could (and actually, probably, still can) literally be found in black bathrooms, kitchens, salons,…
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A Story About Popeyes Chicken (That's Not About Their GOAT Chicken Sandwich) and Also About Nothing at the Same Damn Time
There’s been a whole lot of chicken talk lately. Most of the chicken conversation has centered around the new Popeyes chicken sandwich that had folks, including me and my own family, waiting over an hour for an opportunity to jump into the conversation about its goodness—which is now a thing of the past since Popeyes…
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I Got a Ring Video Doorbell and Now I Pretty Much Want to Move
I don’t know when, exactly, I decided to get a Ring video doorbell, but I do know that one day I got it in my head that I needed some minor surveillance around my door, after a series of unfortunate events. Events like the various times both UPS and the USPS claimed to have delivered…
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My 4-Year-Old Did One of Those Things Kids Do to Remind You Why Being a Parent Is Awesome
Parenting, in practice, is a lot of work. Sure, it’s work that most of us who have the privilege of being parents love, but there are days when everybody can use a break. Especially when you have little ones, which I do. I have three children, aged 3, 4 and 10. As kids get older…
