Tag: Middle

Live an average American woman’s life and you’ll die at around age 79. If you could contemplate things from beyond the grave, you could argue that middle age, for you, was around 40. If you’re a man, dying at age 73 as demographers intended, your spirit self might figure 36 had bee...

It’s not in your head. Your lifestyle is becoming more of a struggle every day. The average national salary in the United States is $59,428 in 2023. Of course you can hedge this by moving to another state where there might be better opportunities available. But even so, the cost o...

The difference between a good photo and a great photo often comes down to its composition. A composition with multiple layers is often more complex and interesting. The three layers in a photograph, a video, or a painting are 1) the foreground, 2) middle ground, and 3) background. Delving into these...

The Magic Trackpad and Magic Mouse are truly amazing devices, but there’s one thing that is just missing: the middle click. I’m not sure why Apple never built in at least some way to execute a middle click, but there’s been a few 3rd party solutions that have come up over the years...

Don’t approach me when I’m in the middle of cooking, or I’ll fall apart. When things are simmering and smelling nice, you can come and I’ll gladly lift the lid to show you, even if the kitchen is still a mess. My flatmate knows that. So, who’s coming?, she asks ...

I decided years ago that if I were ever to write stories from my life Memoires of the Middle One is what I would have to us as a title. I’m the middle child of three girls and it became habit that when I call my parents if one answers and I need to speak to the other one I can hear f...

Perhaps the two most popular artists in the world today are Japan’s Yayoi Kusama and China’s Ai Weiwei. These two are really cool and I am enchanted by them. Last year, I visited the mind-blowing Ai Weiwei exhibition in Cambridge, which is now one of his homes, along with Berlin and P...

It’s probably not the first place people think of when they are considering their favorite place in the world. It’s busy. It’s loud. It’s expensive… very expensive. And it’s in Israel and carries all the baggage that goes along with that —the politics, the ...

The idiom goes “home is where the heart lies”… but let us not forget a flourishing heart is only achievable when the home is attainable. The housing crisis and affordability issue has been a major cause of concern for many, especially young people. While a problem not just spec...

I’m old. I like being old, and I am good at being old. Being old fits me. I was not good at being young or being middle-aged, and it is nice to discover an age I am good at. What’s not to like about it? I don’t have to work. I don’t have to earn money. I can do what I want...

What is the cosmic caterpillar? I read this somewhere and will retell it, badly. Imagine alien observers who perceive time differently, like all at once. Whereas we see our bodies in the here and now, they perceive each body we inhabit (the toddler, the adolescent, the adult) as part of one linked w...

Don’t bother with me. I know you think single women over 40 are desperate. That one nice word will have us out of our panties and into your bed. I’m not trying to be rude, but you don’t understand. This isn’t the time. And it’s not what I want even if it wa...

In the latest war of this conflict, the paramilitary wings of Hamas launched a terrorist attack on October 7, 2023 in which they murdered, mutilated, raped, and kidnapped innocent civilians in Israel including those at a music festival. The death toll was over 1,000 people and has been labeled as on...

So many Washingtonians struggle with housing; homelessness, high rent, housing instability, finding a place to live near their work, never being able to buy a place, not being able to move for opportunity or to escape a bad situation, or being forced out by development or economics of the communitie...

American politics has seen a rapid increase in the disparity of ideas between political parties. I was in my teens during the Obama years, and I didn’t really care for politics. I trusted the leaders of our country. I didn’t have any cause to worry about my future. During the Trump ye...

It’s actually Tak-Wah (pronounced “duck wah”). My immigrant parents chose the name — which means “broad virtue” in Cantonese — so I wouldn’t forget my heritage. Not that I needed the reminder growing up. My black hair, short stature, and funn...

It’s time to get down with this question, does Kenya have a middle class? If it exists, how big is it, and what are its prospects? Depending on who you ask, people provide many answers to the middle-class question. The World Bank, for example, ranks Kenya as a lower-middle-income nat...