Habits I have a story I have told myself for many years. It is that I am incapable of doing the same thing, every day, most days. That building a habit is impossible for me. There was a time when it seemed absurd that anyone could get up, spend an hour…

There are no words that make a stranger a friend. I can’t make Jim Heffernan matter to you if you didn’t know him. Which makes this kind of eulogy — the kind meant for strangers — a narcissistic exercise. Who is this for, except for me? But here I am…

Coming-to from my tonsillectomy was a real hoot. My adult tonsillectomy — they kept telling me it was an adult tonsillectomy — would be much more painful than a child’s. Due to added years of tonsil infections, my already-too-big tonsils would have additional scar tissue through which the surgeon would…

A Conversation with Vox in Which They Send a Lawyer at Me These letters are part of a set of letters issued to New York Magazine in response to their reporting on false memory and repressed memory. For greater context, and to see all letters, please start here. Immediately after sending my letter to the editor to The Cut, I began hearing…

A Letter from Professor Frederick Crews These letters are part of a set of letters issued to New York Magazine in response to their reporting on false memory and repressed memory. For greater context, and to see all letters, please start here. A letter from Professor Frederick Crews, author of The Memory Wars, and Freud: The…

These letters are part of a set of letters issued to New York Magazine in response to their reporting on false memory and repressed memory. For greater context, and to see all letters, please start here. A letter from Timothy Binga at the Center for Inquiry: January 26, 2021 “The…

These letters are part of a set of letters issued to New York Magazine in response to their reporting on false memory and repressed memory. For greater context, and to see all letters, please start here. A letter from Evan Anderson to New York Magazine: January 19, 2021 Hi Melissa…

These letters are part of a set of letters issued to New York Magazine in response to their reporting on false memory and repressed memory. For greater context, and to see all letters, please start here. A letter from Lucien Greaves to New York Magazine: January 18, 2021 Passive consumers…

These letters are part of a set of letters issued to New York Magazine in response to their reporting on false memory and repressed memory. For greater context, and to see all letters, please start here. “This issue has been studied exhaustively for thirty years.” A letter from Dr. Elizabeth Loftus. January 13, 2021 To the Editor: Since neither…