Jody Allard

My favorite part about summer is the ability, for three short months, to stop looking at the clock or calendar and to start enjoying the present.

We live in the over-information age, and food is no exception. It's not enough to simply eat "healthy" anymore — everything from how our food is produced and manufactured to its genetic makeup comes under constant scrutiny, and it's nearly impossible to suss out what really matters. The food we eat has become a moral and ethical choice, with a heaping serving of shame, too.

There is a bitter irony to this morning's news that the entire Los Angeles Unified School District shut down after receiving an emailed threat of violence against its schools. Yesterday was the third anniversary of the Sandy Hook tragedy, and it is a stark reminder that although tragedy has become commonplace, we still do little to prevent it unless it is labeled as terrorism.

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Advertisers don't encourage us to believe that our kids need to make memories more than another toy to wage war on capitalism; they do it because these experience gifts support incredibly successful industries. When we shift our dollars from toys to travel, for instance, we are still supporting big business.

Cities throughout the world honored the victims of the Paris attacks over the weekend with flags lowered to half staff, buildings lit up in the colors of the French flag, and candlelight vigils and moments of silence held in their honor.

The thing about trauma is that it creates inherently unreliable witnesses. Victims tell as much as they can bear to tell, in that moment, and perhaps even as much as they can remember. Memories can be hazy and dim until the second that the curtain is lifted and the body is thrust back into the moment of abuse. There is no such thing as one way of processing trauma, and there is no perfectly linear path to recovery, either.

Former Stone Temple Pilots and Velvet Revolver frontman Scott Weiland died yesterday, and with his death I've come to two unfortunate conclusions: 1.) Addiction is a bitch, and 2.) The 90s are officially dead.

If you don't know who the Holderness family is and have somehow managed to miss their series of painfully awkward viral videos, congratulations! You haven't missed much.

After sorting through all of the reasons why people claim that dress codes are needed, I can't find a single one that holds any weight or that isn't founded in strangely Victorian ideals about girl's bodies.