The debate about wearing masks to slow the spread of COVID-19 has been entirely too heated.

Some people have been outright refusing. Others, including many of my friends, are looking at what happened to flu this season and saying they’ll wear masks in flu season in the future.

Unfortunately, that may get them into some serious trouble. See, in communities and states across America it is, in fact, illegal to wear a mask.

Why Does the U.S. Have Anti-Mask Laws?

The anti-mask laws are aimed squarely at one specific target.

The Ku Klux Klan.

By making wearing a mask illegal the police, in theory, got a weapon…

I was once involved in rehabbing a horse who had been starved. She got much better, but to start with if you went NEAR her when she had food she would threaten to kill you. Because she had food and she didn't know when she would have it again.

We're really just more complicated animals.

In the late 1960s, researchers at Sanford University set out to establish when in child development the ability to delay gratification developed.

They took children from the university preschool, sat them down in a private room and then put down a marshmallow. They promised a second marshmallow when they came back, but only if the child didn’t eat the first one.

Needless to say, some kids ate the first marshmallow right away, some waited a few minutes, and some were able to wait until the experimenter returned. We all have different levels of self control. …

You might have seen headlines this week that somebody shot Lady Gaga’s dogwalker and stole two of her three French bulldogs (the third escaped).

The dogs were later found tied to a lamp post. This might seem to be a truly bizarre incident, but the fact is that dog theft does happen…and French bulldogs are particularly likely victims.

(Likely the thieves abandoned the dogs when they realized they’d taken dogs belonging to a celebrity that they wouldn’t be able to fence, although I’m surprised they didn’t just claim the half a million reward Lady Gaga offers).

Why are Dogs Stolen?

The same reason anything…

Shoes are a practical necessity for most of us. But over the years, people have worn some seriously strange footwear.

Let’s take a look at a few examples, shall we.

Fish Tank Platforms

No, they’re not an urban legend. Fish tank platforms really did exist, although they were never manufactured in large numbers and they didn’t come with the fish. None of them have really survived.

Animal rights activists, needless to say had strong opinions about the trend, although in reality, the shoes were also filled with things like tissue paper, gumballs, marbles, etc.

But yeah, some people did wear shoes with fish…

The latest addition to the Arrowverse (Sorry, I will call it that forever, it’s easier to say and type than the other suggestions) is also perhaps the most mainstream: They’re finally doing a Superman show.

I watched the pilot last night and here are some of my impressions, good and bad. This article contains spoilers, so if you haven’t seen it yet, bookmark it and come back after you’ve watched.

Lois Lane

Elizabeth Tulloch is growing on me rapidly as Lois Lane, and the writers have a solid idea about modern print journalism.

My mother-in-law is a retired print journalist and Lane’s…

Something a lot of white people don't think about is this:

A few weeks ago I refused to allow a Black man to hold the elevator for me. It wasn't possible for me, with my heavy cart, to get into the elevator without physically brushing up against him. So I politely asked him not to.

He screamed at me and called me a Karen and screamed about how he had just tested negative.

Because, unfortunately, what I did appeared racist. It looked to him as if I was pointedly avoiding him because of a specific fear that Black people are…

Honestly, most of us have known for a while that Joss Whedon is a jerk. I’m a Buffy fan, I adore Buffy and it partially inspires my own work.

But Whedon is a jerk.

I even liked Dollhouse despite it’s problematic nature. (It was clearly meant to deal with cyberpunk themes of identity, agency, and control, but did have a tendency to wallow in it).

But Whedon is a jerk.

And recent allegations indicate that it may go beyond that.

Directors Being Jerks

Look, I’ll say it. There’s a trope that directors are jerks. …