When Hurricane Maria flattened Puerto Rico in September, the damage and loss was catastrophic. But unless we had family ties to the island, the disaster seemed distant, barely touching our lives in the mainland … but we were wrong. The ripple effect from Maria has surged far past the island itself and into the hospitals […]
“Why would I want a mini-me?” she asks, annoyed at the suggestion that someday she might want to have kids. “No way do I want offspring. Isn’t one of me enough?” She swears she will not change her mind. “Hell no, I won’t come to regret this decision.” How can she convince her doctor that […]
Whether to consider deaths and injuries from guns a public health problem, and therefore to bring to bear the statistical tools of epidemiology, has been a substantial controversy since at least the 1990s. Gun rights attorney Don Kates was the lead author with four professors of biology and medicine of a seminal and influential 1994 […]
I’m going to let you in on a behind-the-scenes battle between two Motif writers, incited by the new “Taco Bar” on the Olneyville section of Providence. It began with a simple question. “Do you want to cover Troop?” asked my editor, who is — by the way — talented and beautiful (ed. note: and […]
Aries: You concentrate on your public persona and where you are headed in this life. Past actions catch up with you for good or ill. While a boost in finances is possible, don’t neglect careful management of funds. After the New Moon of the 16th, your social life picks up as old and new friends come calling. […]
Okee dokee folks… Last week I had the pleasure of being included in the sold-out Tom Petty tribute show at the Columbus Theatre. Initially I wasn’t part of the line-up, but someone canceled about a week before the show and I was able to fill in. Most of the Petty songs that I knew were chosen […]
With temperatures in the dear God, why have you forsaken us range, I’ve been desperately seeking the malty comfort of some rich, dark brews that will warm the bones and make me forget that I could die of exposure going to take the recyclables out. If your tastes are like mine, then you know the […]
Most Rhode Islanders are familiar with the large, gray stone building surrounded by a barbed wire fence that sits atop Pontiac Avenue at the former Howard complex in Cranston, now recognized as the Pastore Government Center. It is a part of the state prison system known as the Adult Correctional Facility [ACI]. Within its walls […]
2017 Perhaps only Phillipe and Jorge know how difficult keeping the Cool, Cool World going for over 38 years has been, but this past year has been especially challenging in a world seemingly gone mad. As Jorge’s brilliant friend the Sun Queen recently put it, “Just a bunch of creators and destroyers, wandering around earth […]
It’s fall 1991. I am a senior in college and feminist is a word I have been using for less than a year. My roommates and I rush home from class every day to witness the Clarence Thomas Supreme Court nomination hearings. An African-American woman, who use to work for him, has accused him of […]