My Favourite Newspapers, News Portals, and Magazines

My Favourite Journals

My Favourite Books & Plays

My Favourite Short Stories & Articles

The Economist (2001, July 26). The case for legalisation. The Economist. [Perhaps one of the better-written articles documenting the failure of the War on Drugs and making a cogent case for legalisation].

The Economist (2001, August 30). America's new Utopias: The growth of private communities. The Economist.

The Economist (2001, December 20). The Bridget Jones economy: Singles and the city. The Economist.
[Businesses have started catering to the fastest growing demographic: singles, especially female singles.]

Ehrenreich, B. (1985). The cult of busyness. New York Times.
[ A hilarious essay on our culture's obsession with "being busy" every single minute of the day. Also in her book, listed in the books section above].

Franzen, J. (2002, September 30). Mr. Difficult: Reading William Gaddis. The New Yorker, 100-111. [Discusses some of the angst readers go through when they set out to read a "difficult" book.]

Good, B. (1998, May). Break out of your slump. Men's Health, 13 (4), 97. [Tips on staying alert during the day.]

Gopnik, A. (2002, September 30). Bumping into Mr. Ravioli: How we got to be so busy. The New Yorker, 80-84. [A criticism—and vindication—of New Yorkers' seeming obsession with "busyness".]

Gorer, G. (1965). The pornography of death. In G. Gorer, Death, grief, and mourning. Harold Ober Associates Incorporated.
[Considers our voyeuristic pleasure for death to be the same as our lust for pornography.]

The Guardian. (2002, November 7). Raging against the machine. The Guardian. [Letters from PhD students describing the terrors they go through as they finish their PhD studies. Discussion of the cloistered nature of the ivory tower and the academic jealousies and political motivations responsible for making students' lives a living hell.]

Gutfeld, G. (1998, November). Metaphysical Fitness. Men's Health, 13 (9), 162. [The author describes what he learns when he lives in a monastery for one week.]

Hamilton, W. (2001, September). Suitably attired: Well-dressed men have worn the same thing for a century now. A history and an appreciation of the suit. The Atlantic Monthly.

Hammond, M.L. (2001, July). The orphan age. Cathelaine, 121-126. [Discusses the feelings adult children experience when their parents die and they are faced, for the first time, with living their lives all on their own.]

Heavey, B. (1998, April). Be a head master. Men's Health, 13 (3), 78-80. [Clever ideas on keeping your mind functioning at peak performance.]

Kennedy, P. (2001, September/October). Just friends: Thoughts on sharing your life with a friend instead of a lover. Utne Reader, 107, 75-77.

Hitt, J., & Abelard, P. (1993, September). New rules about sex on campus. Harper's, 287 (1720), 33. [A fascinating interview with four professors who discuss their views on the pros and cons of professor-student relationships. Two think such relationships are great; two don't.]

Kimura, D. (2002, May 13). Sex differences in the brain: Men and women displays patterns of behavioral and cognitive differences that reflect varying hormonal influences on brain development. Scientific American, 12,32-37.
[Offers a compelling balance to the fashionable view today that cognitive differences between men and women are due mainly to socialisation.]

Kimura, D. (2000 Fall). A scientist dissents on sex and cognition. Cerebrum, 2 (4), 68-84. ["Psychologist Doreen Kimura, author of Sex and Cognition [MIT Press, 1999], argues that from our earliest years the cognitive patterns of boys and girls diverge in striking ways. In areas such as mathematical reasoning, she adds, there is barely any overlap between men and women at the higest levels of performance. She asks: 'Why not face the possibility that men and women will be disproportionately represented across a wide range of occupations and professions?'

Kita, J. (1998, June). Soul training. Men's Health, 13 (5), 96-98.
[Some interesting research findings on the connections between religiousity/spirituality and health.]

Kita, J. (1999, May). Your mother: A survival guide. Men's Health, 14 (4), 142-147.

Kluger, J., & Park, A. (2001, April 27). The quest for a superkid. Time. [Discusses parents' obsession with turning their kids into tomorrow's Einsteins. Considers the emotional effects this has on kids.]

Kluger, J. (1996, May). Risky business. Discover, 44-47.
[Hilarious article describing all the life-threatening events we experience in a regular day. Statistically, it's amazing we survive to see tomorrow!]

Maurer, R. (2002, September). Why stress doesn't exist. Men's Health, 17 (7), 96-98. [Criticises the notion of "stress", claiming it is a culturally constructed terms that pathologises regular everyday feelings and turns people into helpless neurotics.]

Melville, Herman (1853). Bartleby the Scrivener: A Story of Wall Street. [A charming story about a New York scrivener who refuses to do anything his boss tells him to.]

Menzies, H. (2000, October 25). The inexperience of time. CBC Radio: IDEAS [Radio broadcast]. [Considers the speed of everyday life and how it has made it practically impossible to actually experience time.]

Murray, B. (2002, July/August). Sound body, strong researcher: Start with self-care, and the rest will come. APA Monitor on Psychology, 61. [Suggests that instead of obsessing about publication tallies and forcing themselves to study harder, students and researchers focus on their physical and mental health. When those two things are balance, productivity will naturally increase and results will be better than those of other students.]

Rogers, C.R. (1947). Some observations on the organization of personality. American Psychologist, 2, 358-368.
[Humanistic psychologist Carl Rogers's APA Presidential Address. Excellent observations on the value of giving people unconditional positive regard and a safe place in which to be 100% honest about all of their thoughts and feelings. It is observed that doing so helps reduce defenses, improve self perceptions, and enjoy maximal experience of the entire self.]

Pittman, F. (1994, November/December). How to manage mom & dad. Psychology Today, 27 (6), 44-74.

Plotz, D. (1997, May 25). Rupert Murdoch: Humanitarian? He's not as bad as he seems—really. Slate.

Plotz, D. (1998, April 26). Edgar Bronfman, Edgar Bronfman: Overrated father, misunderstood son. Slate.

Plotz, D. (2001, September 1). Conrad Black: The newspaper mogul thinks like an American and writes like a Brit. No wonder he's leaving Canada. Slate.

Ridley, M. (2003, June 2). What makes you who you are. Which is stronger—nature or nurture? The latest science say genes and your experience interact for your whole life. Time (Canadian Edition), 161 (22), 32-30. [Suggests that the old nature-nurture debate is moot because genes and environment are not the opposite of one another; they may essentially be the same thing. Genes predispose us to respond to the environment in certain ways.  But our responses (ie, our behaviour) can change our genes by turning them on and off. Genes set up the body as well as the opportunity for the environment and experience to completely dismantle what they set up in the first place.

Salmon, C., Crawford, C.B., Dane, L., & Zuberbier, O. (Submitted). Ancestral mechanisms in modern environments: Impact of competition and stress on body image and dieting behavior. [Argues that anorexic behaviour could be part of an ancestral practice of delaying reproduction until social and/or ecological conditions are more favourable. Today, women continuously experiences cues telling them that reproduction would not be a good idea at the moment. This may lead to faulty eating patterns.]

Shenk, J.W. (1995, October). Why you can hate drugs and still want to legalize them. The Washington Monthly, 32-40. [One of the better-written articles comprehensively documenting the problems with the War on Drugs and offering convincing arguments for legalisation. If you want a good article on the War and on legalisation, go to this one first].

Shneidman, E.S. (1993). Suicide as psychache. Journal of Nervous and Mental Disease, 181 (3), 147-149.
[Suggests we move away from considering suicide as merely the result of depression and other pathologies. If we can do so, we will understand the many other reasons that people kill themselves.]

Steiner, A. (2001, September/October). Got time for friends? Utne Reader, 107, 67-70.

Teicher, M.H. (2000, Fall). Wounds that time won't heal: The neurobiology of child abuse. Cerebrum, 2 (4), 50-67.
[An absolutely fascinating article suggesting that even non-physical, psychological abuse can create lasting changes in the physical structure of the brain that put a child at increased risk of developing a variety of emotional problems and disorders. Also suggests an interesting, neurological explanation of bordelrine personality disorder, with abuse-related left-right brain communication problems as a cause.]

Vallis, M. (2002, October 19). Cities' state: Vancouver's the winner in a survey that shows you're only as healthy as the city you live in. National Post.

Vanstone, E. (2002, May 11). "Hello, Mom? It's me." Globe and Mail, p. F8. [Do you get anxious giving your mother a call on mother's day?]

Vergano, D. (1998, March). No more rude awakenings. Men's Health, 14 (2), 102-104. [Some people dread waking up each morning because they have nothing enjoyable to look forward to. Tips on how to change this.]

Wakeford, J. (2002, September 17). What goalposts? The Guardian. [Discusses the hell PhD students go through when they finally defend their dissertations. Considers the personal and political motivations for giving students a fail.]

Watters, E. (2001, October 14). The way we live now: In my tribe. New York Times Sunday Magazine. [As more and more urbanites delay marriage, particularly their friends become their family—their 'tribe'.]

Wolfe, A. (2000, October). The opening of the Evangelical mind. The Atlantic Monthly, 286 (4), 55-76. [Evangelical schools are constantly criticised for their limited intellectual scope. This article argues that the tide is definitely turning.]