SENSE & SENSITIVITY
I used to think self-styled “progressives” and Black Lives Matter activists had coined the dumbest political slogan of the 21st century: “Defund the Police.” Democratic strategist James Carville called it “the three worst words ever in the English language.” Not for nothing has President Joe Biden gone out of his way to declare, as reported by The New York Times’ Charles Blow, that “when it comes to public safety in this nation, the answer is not ‘defund the police.’ It’s ‘fund the police.’” Ordinary citizens may have mixed feelings about cops, but everybody wants help fast when they dial 911 – a point so elementary only the smuggest kind of intellectual could fail to understand it.
If you want to help save the North Atlantic right whale, you should give up eating Atlantic lobster. This is according to the advocacy group Seafood Watch, which warns that the ropes used for lobster fishing can “entangle critically endangered North Atlantic right whales.” With just a few hundred whales left, they face extinction unless changes happen quickly. While efforts are underway to create a “whale-safe lobster” standard to identify crustaceans harvested with ropes, the best bet to help now is to avoid or severely limit your lobster intake.
DEAR HARRIETTE: My 23-year-old daughter signed a one-year lease with her boyfriend and moved out of my home without telling me. I discovered that she had left by finding her bedroom completely empty. I am hurt by the way she decided to handle everything. If she feels that she is grown enough to move out and get a place on her own, she should be grown enough to sit down and have a conversation with me about the move.
If you want to understand the impact of polio – if you want to comprehend the heartbreak polio victims feel about the return of infantile paralysis – if you want to sense the bewilderment that polio victims feel about vaccine skepticism – then walk a mile in Stacy Smith’s shoes.
DEAR HARRIETTE: i have been so busy between work and family obligations that i have forgotten some key family dates and even some work responsibilities. I feel like i am barely treading water when it comes to getting things done, which is crazy since i'm the one who is usually on top of things. In part, i think it's because the world is now hybrid. I had been building my schedule based on going from one meeting to the next in a blink by logging onto one zoom after the next.
DEAR DOCTORS: My wife read somewhere that when kids grow up with a do in the house, it can keep them from getting schizophrenia. I know that having a pet can help kids develop responsibility, but preventing mental illness seems like a stretch. Is this based on psychology — or something else?
This New York Times headline captures an important inflection point in the current political campaign: “G.O.P. Redoubles Efforts to Tie Democrats to High Crime Rates.”
My husband, Peter, and I are spending time 'up north' with my parents at their cabin by the lake. Fall is late this year. I mentioned this to Peter on the drive north.
SENSE &