The Soul of the Beagle Today, we have to say goodbye to Buckley the Beagle. A great dog of many names: Floppers. Snouty. FlopperSnout. BuckleyFlopperSnout (this was our WiFi password for three years). Buddy. Doodle. Buckles. Mr. Buckles. Buck Buck. Buckster. Sweet Boy. Little Baby Buckley. Buckley’s visible decline came…

I have known my wife nearly 9 years. We have been together seriously for 8 of those, and married for almost six. In that time, I got to know her (large) family very well; better than most of my own family really. There was only one person I never got…

How the world’s hottest fitness craze really is like a cult — In the last few years, a number of my friends have taken up CrossFit. I know this because they don’t shut up about it. When I’m around more than one of them at a time, it completely changes the way we socialize and speak. I’ve sit through business dinners at…

A look at the school is a look in the mirror — Duke University is the smallest, smartest and most selective of the three colleges in the Raleigh-Durham area of North Carolina (the other two are UNC and NC State). …

How America’s Dog Parks are just like its High Schools — The ubiquity of dog parks in America’s towns and cities is a relatively recent phenomenon. I grew up in a progressive, pet-friendly Northern California town of 75,000 and we didn’t get a dog park until 2002. Like most Americans over 30, as a child and then as a teenager, when…

How Whole Foods Attracts Complete Shitheads. — I’ve shopped at Whole Foods in every time zone, in at least 10 different cities: LA, San Francisco, Seattle, Denver, Austin, Chicago, Milwaukee, New York, DC and Richmond, VA. I love Whole Foods. Scratch that, I love the products Whole Foods sells, no matter what other people might have to…

And guess what: it’s all your fault — One of my best friends from college is a very successful, accomplished woman. Her name is Sarah, but that’s not important here. Sarah’s childhood was a paint-by-numbers version of the Ugly Duckling fairy tale, set in the hilly exurbs of Greater Los Angeles during that odd transitional period in American…

photo from digitaltrends.com In a rare bout of coordinated lucidity from an industry known for making even its most loyal customers question the existence of God or justice, Delta Airlines and Jet Blue have announced they are banning in-flight voice calls on all their planes. …

Modern Life Lessons from History’s Greatest Sculptor — I edit books for a living. Actually, that’s not true. I edit manuscripts. When I am done (and they are formatted), then they are books. Before they get to me, most manuscripts are essentially a collection of strong ideas and great stories that have been suffocated by authorial self-doubt, insecurity…