This is the petition as written on the Petition Site. Click here to sign. ~ ~ ~ This petition respectfully requests that the Oxford English Dictionary, Merriam-Webster Dictionary, and Cambridge Dictionary reverse their decisions to include the figurative use of words or phrases in its definition of “literally.” Oxford English Dictionary Definition of “literally”: In […]
“Pope Francis has directly described those who choose not to have children as ‘selfish’ and as obsessed with material things.” The childfree beat goes on. La dee da deh dee. La dee da deh dah. You would think the childfree horse has been adequately beaten to the mushy lump of flesh you’d find in any […]
In the interest of recording history, I recently interviewed a friend who deployed to Iraq several years ago. I chose him because he’s honest and thoughtful, and because of his experience. He’s been on two combat deployments to Iraq and six non-combat deployments to various countries around the world. L. Andrew Arlint, who joined the […]
Originally appeared in the Journal Inquirer Thursday, Oct. 11, 2012 By Kristen J. Tsetsi HARTFORD, Conn. — There are very few rooms in the Mark Twain House that haven’t been the reported site of a supernatural encounter: an apparition passing an open doorway; the sudden, heavy odor of cigar smoke in the upstairs billiard and […]
…they’re being infuriatingly irresponsible and unprofessional in their coverage of the elevator incident and, in their manner of doing so (not discussing Mrs. Rice’s behavior), propagating the belief that only women are (or could possibly be, because they’re little and weak, not big and strong like men!) #abuse victims, which then discourages abused men from […]
Originally published in the Journal Inquirer Monday, Aug. 18, 2014 By Kristen J. Tsetsi A New York Times obituary for former People magazine editor Patricia Ryan, who died late last year, sums up her education thus: “Ms. Ryan, whose only post-secondary education [prior to a job at Sports Illustrated] had been secretarial school, earned a […]
Reggie Lutz is one of those people whose feed you look forward to when scrolling absently through Facebook. Her updates are engaging and off the wall, and seemingly effortless in a social media world that I’ve learned requires a certain kind of savvy that doesn’t come naturally to everyone. She also writes beautifully – her […]
First, apologies to James Moore, an outspoken hater of lists. Second, because being 40 is weird, and because I still remember looking in the mirror at 17 and wondering about “adulthood,” I wanted to make a list of things learned. Not necessarily for my former self who will obviously never read this and therefore never […]
The tsunami of self-published authors in the last several years has created a huge marketplace for book cover designers. Many websites offer ready-made templates that are easily less expensive than it would be to hire an independent designer to create a unique cover. (And some cover templates, like those offered by Lulu and CreateSpace in […]
KT 
Restrooms and Respect*
In his April 11 opinion column defending the sanctity of the water closet, Journal Inquirer managing editor Chris Powell questions (without taking a clear position) whether a person born with one kind of genitalia will threaten the modesty of those born with another should they find themselves sitting side by side in walled, closed-doored women’s […]