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Outdoors and Travel

Podcasts that will make you more interesting at parties

Katie Long McDowell My dog Tulip will eat anything. And I really do mean anything. The fuzz Moo pulls out of his toys, leaves and sticks, dirty napkins, you name it. Nothing is off limits. This makes walking her a veritable minefield — every bit of rotten food, all manner of discarded wrappers; an empty, capless Chapstick once, and yes, the occasional piece of dried feces is fair game. She scored a lollipop stick with a bit of green left on it after this last Halloween. And the chicken bones. Lord help me, the chicken bones. I do not understand it — I mean, I ...

Want to change the world? Start with the front of your hair

Katie Long McDowell What is it about the female species that whenever life doesn’t feel quite right, our first inclination is, “Maybe I should get bangs?” I posed this question on social media and to my friends recently after finding myself browsing page after Google Images page of hairstyles featuring — you guessed it. The curtain kind, to be exact. The answers, of course, ran the gamut from “Go for it!” to more than a few — and, to be fair, perfectly valid — variations of “Don’t go there.” and “OMG NO.” But not a single person — members of the ...

Watchword for 2024 isn’t really a word at all

Last night I lay awake nearly until dawn, a very real pit bull snoring in my ear, a metaphorical hornet’s nest in my head. It was just one of those times — when, no matter how hard you might try to force it to quiet down, your brain doesn’t want to stop buzzing. You know the ...

Oh, the horror … of this hair

Because I write and I love horror movies, people often ask if I’ve ever considered penning a screenplay. My friend Matt — who has worked on a few scary films himself in the past — pokes me about it incessantly, in fact. But although I’m a fan, it’s never really occurred to me ...

Costa Rica offers lessons in living

If you’ve been to Costa Rica, you know they have a particular national slogan. The two words are everywhere — on menus, on signs, on the lips of nearly everyone you meet. Costa Ricans use the phrase constantly, to mean anything from “thank you,” to “hello,” to “no worries,” to “you’re welcome,” to “goodbye” at the end of a phone call — or one of those ubiquitous WhatsApp voice messages they love to send. The words grace T-shirts and tank tops and hand-painted doodads of all sizes, shapes and purpose — perhaps to remind shopping tourists what it ...

Dogs make out like bandits this Christmas

As the rest of the world — the holiday-celebrating portion of it, anyway — busily works to scratch names and tasks off their lists, I’m winding down from one of my fondest Christmases in memory. While it was early, it was wonderful, full of family and thoughtful presents and (far too many) fresh, hot doughnuts. But as delightful as it was for the humans, the real winners this year were my dogs. Because not only did they make out like bandits — albeit adorable, furry ones — they’ve also managed to appropriate a good many of my gifts along with their ...