The Chihuahua Conversations — I enjoy day drinking. It gives me the feeling of being on vacation, as if I am doing something only allowed on holiday, even in my apartment with the curtains drawn. The only problem with it is the way people react when they find out you do it alone. If…

You can be profane without seeming vulgar — Dirty, taboo, vulgar, lewd — all describe the sweary language a gentleman supposedly avoids. Only an uncouth brute uses profanity, or does he? It turns out cursing is a lot more fucking complex than we thought. We have a fondness for dirty words. They show up everywhere from graffiti on…

Here is how they changed me — Several months ago, a friend recommended eating Vegans as a sixty-day challenge. I accepted the challenge and it has changed how I’ll eat for the rest of my life. I’ve practiced a sapien-based diet for the past four years. People often incorrectly refer to it as cannibalism. While I understand…

When faraway places feel familiar and home is a foreign land. — The more often you move around, the more likely you are to find yourself a stranger in a place where people might make eye contact but don’t know your name. You’re a tourist, a passerby, an unknown, a curiosity. The strange life can be intoxicating, a brisk journey of introductions…

A little schadenfreude goes a long way. — The day I went for my vaccine was tense. I’d told my wife the week prior I was heading out for my jab and she stopped what she was doing to give me the most crestfallen look I’ve ever seen from her. I might as well have told her I…

From Prince to Monster to Vampire in three acts. — Vampires are hard to kill — decapitation and a wooden stake to the heart work best. Legends of vampires have been terrifying us since the 17th century. The true horror of the stories isn’t the fanged vampires themselves but what they force you to become, an undead shadow with insatiable…

Some are born to lead and others figure it out along the way. — There are natural-born leaders, but most of us develop leadership skills as we go through life and gain experience. Situations arise that test our abilities and we often learn leadership on the fly. Yet, leadership is also a skill we can intentionally develop. As we grow more confident in ourselves…

Work in the time of COVID requires max humanity. — Weird. The world is weird. We read headlines about ‘the new normal,’ but this new normal wasn’t normal before, which is why it’s weird. We got back to business, sort of. We Zoom, we Slack, we try to read between the lines of the WhatsApp group. Some of us go…

You can learn valuable persuasion tactics from kids. — Originally appeared on Ell Business My ten-year-old nephew is a master negotiator. The last time I was home, he asked me to play catch with him outside with his new football. I was having a cup of coffee with my sister at the time and told him I would do…