Author: Laurie White

Why I Marched: 9 Women Across The Country Share Their Reasons

By Laurie White

Planned as a protest in Washington, D.C. to the inauguration of the 45th President of the United States the day before, the January 21st  Women’s March on Washington surpassed all expectations of size and scope. Millions of people showed up in D.C. and in cities all over the country—and beyond that to all seven continents—to march, chant, and listen to speakers, united in focus on resisting Donald Trump’s agenda. Many of the women wore the famed pink knit “pussy hats,” although headgear was entirely optional, and most carried signs with pro-woman and equality, anti-Trump and fascism messages.  I talked to several women about why they marched, what steps they plan to take next, and if they consider this day the birth of a movement. Sandie Angulo Chen, writer Maryland I marched in Atlanta while attending the American Library Association’s annual midwinter conference. I marched because as Rep. John Lewis reminded us, we can’t afford for our nation to take even one step backwards when it comes to human rights, civil rights, women’s rights. Since then, …

11 Gift Guides From a Few of Our Favorite Women Bloggers

By Laurie White

(Photo collage: Erica Hornung/TueNight) We are smack in the middle of the alleged most wonderful time of the year, and I have one question: Are you still shopping? Because I am. And when I’m in this kind of cyber-December-retail mode, there is no enabler like the internet, home of gift roundups of every size and focus. Some of our favorite women online have made lists of the best gift ideas for anyone on your list. If you’re still out in the internet streets looking for the as-yet elusive perfect gift for anyone or everyone, I can help. Read on: 1. The gift guides at Petit Elefant include this one with great ideas for women. The Complete Works of Jane Austen in a beautiful hardcover boxed set and a blanket scarf from ModCloth are just two of the picks your sister, your mom, or your best friend are likely to love. 2. The gift guides at Girl of a Certain Age are a double treat—packed with cool presents, and fun to read. I’m loving her list …

BFF Love Fest: 7 Pairs of Besties Share What Bonds Them

By Laurie White

I met my friend Sarah eight years ago at a conference after-party, years after I thought the world had stopped handing out best friends to grown women. I shut my hand in a heavy restroom door and cut it — badly. She was walking in when the bleeding started and asked me if I needed help. I said yes, and she stayed to assess the situation. We wrapped it up, laughed about it and went back to the table. I don’t remember what happened next, but I know that she has been there, in many ways and to varying degrees, ever since. We all need these kinds of connections: strong, supportive bonds that are key to health, happiness — and also killer brunch and housewarming parties, let’s be honest. Sometimes, a particular human connection is stronger than the rest, and you end up with that person who holds the other side of your virtual heart necklace…and maybe even your internet passwords. You get a best friend. We talked with some pairs of best friends about …

11 Women Who Started Brand New Careers in Midlife— and Never Looked Back

By Laurie White

Big changes in career, vocation and lifestyle in midlife or the years leading up to it are more often an evolution than a radical change. I went back to journalism school at 35 because the writing degree I’d started at 18 — and never finished —nagged at me for years. Going from full-time college counselor and teacher to graduate student was intimidating — financially, intellectually and emotionally. It was also one of the best, richest experiences of my life, and, no matter how many zeroes got added to my student loan balance, I have never regretted it. I traveled to Vietnam to cover business growth there. I was a reporter in the arena on the night Barack Obama accepted the nomination for President of the United States. I helped to run a student digital newsroom and emerged as the de facto den mother of several classmates a decade or more my junior. I now have a degree that means I can teach writing if I want to (because I loved teaching too much to leave …

We Asked 15 Women of All Ages: What Does Turning “50” Mean?

By Laurie White

Fifty is an age and a cultural milestone, marking half a century lived and decades yet to unfold. Here, 15 women who have reached the half-century mark — and those who have years to go — share their thoughts about what this middle age marker means to them. Elisa Camahort Page, 52 Chief Community Officer, She Knows Media @ElisaC “50 means less than I would have thought. It certainly explains the grey streak and the sudden utter understanding about why Nora Ephron complained about her neck. It probably explains fewer fucks to give and more willingness to forgive. But when I’m driving in my car with the radio blasting or giggling about some stupid double entendre that a 12-year-old boy would find amusing or digging in to my eleventy-billionth fruitless internet argument, I’m not sure 50 means much at all. We always learn, and we never learn. I think that’s what being human means.” Meredith Walker, 47 Founder, Amy Poehler’s Smart Girls, AmySmartGirls.com @meredeetch “I do not think much about eventually turning 50. I am PRO-Aging. I …

Why I Don’t Need You to “Mansplain” It to Me

By Laurie White

As I walked to my seat at a gathering last week, a male acquaintance grabbed me by the elbow, spilling my coffee. “Whoa,” I said. “What are you doing?” “That’s what you get for not saying hello to me,” he said. “You spilled my coffee,” I said and kept walking. I could focus on the details here of how I know this person casually and that he has previously told me out of the blue that I’m “intimidating” and that I don’t speak to him as much as he’d like me to. I could get into how I get nervous in groups and how I generally need to locate a safe spot and/or a safe person in the room, and in that process I can skip acknowledging people accidentally. And God knows I probably don’t smile enough at anyone, especially men, based on feedback I’ve gotten whether I’ve asked for it or not. I can note how I was walking to that safe spot the other night with my too-full coffee when he interrupted me …

Snoring: My Not-So-Secret Crime

By Laurie White

Once upon a time, I had to sleep in a bunkhouse on a women’s retreat. As per usual, in a group sleeping situation, I did not sleep well. I sensed rustling around in the room all night. It was hot, and I was uncomfortable — as it turned out, with good reason. When I woke up, one of the women in my group was glaring at me. “Damn Laurie, you snore,” she said. “I didn’t sleep at all last night. Thanks a lot.” My face went red. I felt deep embarrassment. Of course I knew this would happen. I had asked for my own sleeping space, as snorers frequently do, and was shot down. There was nowhere else to put me. I had told the organizers what the problem might be, and they blew it off. They never should have. It typically ends well for no one. This happened again, on a trip to Vietnam after a day-long journey. Again, I’d warned my professors that I might bother my roommate. No one listened. Anger ensued, …

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My Year of Streaming Dangerously

By Laurie White

After years of pushing my night owl habit to unhealthy limits, I committed to sleeping a solid eight hours every night. It quickly turned into the most well-rested year of my adult life. Then I got a Roku. I wasn’t a binge-watcher at the time. All I wanted was the ability to keep up with the shows I heard my friends and the internet go on about. I didn’t feel like a pop culture writer who had never seen True Detective or Breaking Bad could call herself legit. I also wanted to revisit Friday Night Lights. Plus, House of Cards was about to begin, and I needed to watch Orange is the New Black. I did not want to watch any of this on my computer. I work on the Internet; I already spend many hours every day staring at a smallish screen, and I didn’t want to move my TV-watching habits there too. I wanted to watch actual shows on actual television from my actual couch. With one cable, the tiny Roku connected my …

I Hit My Breaking Point and Asked for Help

By Laurie White

(Photo credit: Lorenzo Tlacaelel/Flickr.com) I flipped my hood up and started walking, on my way to buy beer at midnight on a work night. I had gotten up from my desk back in the apartment when the panic set in that I wouldn’t have enough of what I called “my medicine” to get me through the assignment I was working on and then carry me on to maybe four hours of passed-out sleep. Where writing was concerned, I was sure I was much more productive then. Fueled by wine, adrenaline and a liberal shot of rage, words flowed out of the space between sober and drunk, a space where I spent a lot of my time. Whether the words were good or not is debatable, but I thought they were better — and only possible — with a few drinks in me. It’s a writer’s ego that values output over possible self-annihilation. Can’t do it if you’re dead or incapacitated, but what’s that small detail? Bless our hearts. That night, dwelling on my bullshit logic, I put …

Smiley Poop, Unicorns, Middle Fingers: What We Talk About When We Emoji

By Laurie White

(Photo by Helen Jane Hearn/TueNight) “Look at my taco emoji,” my friend said last week. “Look at it!” “I can’t see it. I’d have to upgrade my phone. The last time I did that, the battery life on the device I use to do every important task in my life dropped to nothing and I’m scared to try it again.” “A taco emoji, Laurie. And a unicorn. A middle finger.” And this is how I came to spend last Monday night watching the Apple 9.1 upgrade fail twice, appear to turn my phone into a terrifying brick and then, suddenly, magically work five hours before my alarm was due to go off. Tiny text tacos and unicorns and profane hand gestures – such are my priorities today. It’s fine. I can own it, along with the truth that the first emoji I sent when the phone came back to life in the morning was a unicorn. And it was very, very satisfying. I was a relatively late adopter of emojis, Japanese symbols that are meant to clarify …

I’ve Never Wanted Anyone Like This — and I’m Still Looking

By Laurie White

“Crazy For You” music video. (youtube.com) I still listen to the radio often when I drive, mostly for the rush of stumbling across a song I love among the commercials. Missing in our current world of all-media-on-demand-all-the-time is the element of surprise I found when I was flipping stations the other night and came across Madonna’s “Crazy for You”. It’s high on my mental list of songs I have to listen to all the way through; I’ll sit in the parking lot and sing to the end before I’ll go inside. It’s 30 years old this year. It’s the power ballad from Vision Quest, a movie I recall nothing about except for the snippets I can remember from the video – Matthew Modine doing pushups, wrestling, then kissing Linda Fiorentino and her enormous hair, like a knock-off Kevin Bacon from Footloose destined for trouble, dissonantly interspersed with Madonna in her best tousled hair, black bracelets and scarves as a bar singer emoting the crap out of “Crazy for You.” I was 14 in 1985, a …

Snapshots of a 100+ Person Family Picnic

By Laurie White

Laurie’s great grandparents (center), grandfather (right) and grandfather’s youngest brother (left). (Photo courtesy Laurie White) When I was a teenager I loathed family reunions. “How is school?” “Where do you plan to go to college?” “Do you have a boyfriend?” Questions that have no real answers. Adolescent hell. I loved my aunts and uncles, and even when I was at my most socially awkward, “I hate it,” “I don’t know,” and “hell no” seemed like dismissive answers, and would have for sure gotten me in trouble. I opted for “Fine,” “I don’t know — University of Maryland, probably,” and “Uh, no.” Simple and marginally true. Our summer picnic on the Chesapeake Bay and the yearly Christmas party were non-negotiable family obligations, however. And even at 15 I knew that these huge events — and my family — were too important to skip, no matter how I felt about it. My grandfather was the oldest of 18 siblings born over a span of 20 years. No one in his generation moved from the DC area, so …

Why Healing Touch is Better Than a Grilled Cheese Sandwich

By Laurie White

When I tell someone I have a healing touch practitioner, I still have the impulse to apologize — to feel some misplaced, new age shame for saying my magnetic energy fields need realignment, or even to speak of having them at all. It’s silly. You’d think that after 30-odd years at the spiritual salad bar — self-help books, yoga, rosaries, meditation and finally the path of sobriety — that I’d just come out with whatever I’m doing now to keep myself in check with no concern about the possible woo-woo factor. I send my dog to day care, for God’s sake. What kind of shame about my life choices can I possibly have left? A little, it’s true. Deep inside of this post-millennial searcher is the voice of the Greatest Generation that helped to raise me, that says — with love — that a grilled cheese sandwich, a beer and maybe a movie will fix what ails me, so stop my bitching. But that’s been proven disastrously wrong. So I’ve learned that when the magnetic …

Don’t Stand So Close to Me. Especially at the Grocery Store

By Laurie White

(Photo: Flickr.com; Graphic: Nancy Gonzalez/ TueNight.com) I love my personal space. At the same time, I also try to remember that I’m on the planet as one person among many, many other people. I try to help where I can and leave others in peace to be themselves — to “do them,” as it were. Until they’re behind me in the grocery line. Apparently, I have some deeply held beliefs about how much space I can expect to have to for myself, and about how little is too little. If I see you in a yoga studio without your mat space clearly marked on the floor, I will show you exactly what I mean. I’m not bragging about this predisposition. I’m not excited about anything that makes me feel intolerant of other people and their pushy, all-up-on-me ways. I can concede that it’s not them, it’s me. Kinda. Sting and I are on the same lyrical page with at least one thing. Don’t stand so FREAKING CLOSE to me. I don’t hate people, I swear. …

The TueDo List: New Year, Little Changes

By Laurie White

We’re kicking off the year with an eye toward change — just one small thing, for 30 days, and yes, weekends count. You can go for it over the weekend and be super active in your fitness routine, relationship, or whatever other kinds of goals you’ve set, or kick back and make plans to kick butt come Monday. Whatever you decide, here are some ideas for your first weekend of 2015. Read It’s one of my 2015 plans to read more, and I’ll be participating in TueNight’s 30-day challenge by reading at least a book a week. I got some Amazon cash for Christmas, so I think I’m going to get an e-reader. The Kindle was chosen for me, but do I want a Voyage? Or a Paperwhite? I can’t decide. But I’ve held out with just paper for a long time, and since I’m so connected for work and for regular life, if I want to read more (and I do!), I think I have to put books in front of myself in as many forms as possible. Even if I never, ever give up the …

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The TueDo List: Movies, Shopping and Holiday Cheer

By Laurie White

(Photo: Courtesy Zürich Film Office) Hanukkah is happening. Christmas is nearly here. And the crush is almost over — as well as the chance to order anything in time for, well, anything. I’m not sure I can take one more bold type e-mail from a retailer, telling me that “THERE’S STILL TIME,” which of course implies the opposite. (There is still time for stocking stuffers, and there are some fun ones all day today on Amazon Prime.) Here’s how to catch up on some last-minute odds and ends for the people in your life. You can buy most of them from home, so you’ll also have time to relax and enjoy the weekend, holiday-style. Movies and TV I already told you I love my Roku, and I can’t stop talking about it. I’ve already got a Netflix membership, but I only have Hulu free for three months, so I’d love to get that picked up for me by someone who loves me. Sometimes, it’s the coolest thing to have someone else spring for a relatively small splurge item like that. If someone cares …

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Tue Do List: Holiday Lights, Cheryl Strayed, and Quality Time

By Laurie White

(Photos: Lady Bird Johnson Wildflower Center; Desert Botanical Garden; Powell Gardens) At this point in December, gifts are on everyone’s mind. If you’re shopping this weekend, at home or outside, godspeed. And may you subscribe healthily to my favorite gifting philosophy: for every one for them, at least the dream of one for me. Cool Gifts at Pop-ups and holiday markets Refinery 29 pointed readers to the holiday pop-up shops at 73 Spring Shop, Tictail at 90 Orchard Street, and Cuyana at 311 West Broadway, plus its own Tinseltown brick-and-mortar pop-up bazaar, open through Sunday at Nolita’s open house at 200 Mulberry Street. If you’re not in New York, their online Tinseltown holiday guide is a fun read with lots of ideas for gifts, parties, style–all the seasonal fun stuff. DC’s Brightest Young Things has the most comprehensive holiday market and pop-up shop guide I’ve seen for this city. My picks this weekend would be the Del Ray Artisans Holiday Market in Arlington, and Georgetown Glow, with a focus on local stores including the actual Moleskine …

Thanksgiving Leftovers Sandwich

The TueDo List: Enjoy Your Leftovers, Shop Small Businesses and Indulge in Holiday Films

By Laurie White

My goal for this weekend is to do as little as possible. And I’m grateful that I have an opportunity to lapse into inertia. Here are a few other things going on this weekend that I’m thankful for (and you may be too). Happy holidays, my friends. It’s on. Leftovers I could not be less interested in the mall this weekend, but I’m all about leftovers and television. As for the remains of your dinner, Food Network, Martha Stewart, Southern Living and Cooking Light all have recipes for Thanksgiving leftovers — and many of them not the typical turkey-stuffing-cranberry-sauce sandwich variety. Weekend TV guides from Mashable, Daily Beast and Indiewire can help with the glowy box entertainment. Indiewire’s guide is my favorite — they’ recommend watching The Leftovers tomorrow on HBO Signature, calling it a bleak but must-watch drama. Shop Small Amid the Black Friday and Cyber Monday chaos lies Small Business Saturday. It’s an excellent opportunity to remind myself to do most, if not all, of my holiday shopping in my community. This event is (somewhat ironically) sponsored by American Express, which provides a map of local …

Why I Was Ungrateful For Those Gratitude Lists

By Laurie White

For many years, you could spare me your gratitude lists. I didn’t want any of that manufactured positivity. I didn’t believe in it, couldn’t abide by it. The last thing I needed was your swirly font and numbered reasons to dig life, doubling as a reminder of all of the things I didn’t have. Then, faced with a choice to change everything or die, I quit drinking. The first person who really helped me understand how to live as a sober person asked me to send her a gratitude list as soon as I woke up every day. It wasn’t really negotiable. She told me a grateful person had a better chance of not drinking, and my desire to quit was bigger than my hatred of gratitude lists. l had also opened my big mouth and told her I would try anything to get better, so I shut up and sent her five things (mostly) every morning, in a plain black font text thread. My gratitude lists include being alive and they often include coffee, as some mornings …

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The TueDo List: Turkey Trotting, Lost in Music and Getting (and Giving) Help

By Laurie White

Clockwise from top left: Wilco, One Direction and Jason Isbell This weekend will be frenetic for most of the United States, with Thanksgiving travel plans and Black Friday looming on the horizon. And if you’re like me, you’re settling into that time-honored tradition of complaining about the cold. As an alternative, let’s look at some of the fun things this weekend has in store. Lost in Music Shh, don’t tell — I actually like One Direction, so let’s just call that an homage to my lost childhood. The boys have a new album out, which is named Four because it’s their fourth release. I’m also into Wilco’s four-disc Alpha Mike Foxtrot set. It’s a collection of rare and non-LP recordings that would make a great a holiday gift for a fan on your list. My favorite music news of the week was the bizarre invitation sent to former Drive By Trucker’s frontman Jason Isbell to audition for The Voice. He was a good sport and accepted, promising to wear a bikini while he performs. I’m on my umpteenth listen to his 2013 solo release Southeastern.  Losing Thanksgiving Calories The fondly …

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The TueDo List: Period Reads, New Jams and Judy Blume

By Laurie White

Rumer, Tift Merritt, and Ani DiFranco This week’s issue is about that time of the month, which may or may not be this weekend depending on your life and cycle. But is it ever really a bad time for chocolate, good stories from good women, pretty songs and Judy Blume? Nope. So happy weekend — whether or not there’s a cramp currently in your style. Period Jams No one compares to Karen Carpenter, says this ‘70s child raised on her music. But Rumer’s voice comes pretty close, as do her tunes perfect for a lazy afternoon. Her new album, Into Colour, isn’t out in the U.S. until early 2015, but it dropped this week in the UK and Japan and you can get a free download of the single “Sam” from her website. Meanwhile, I’m catching up on her previous releases and feeling like I’m on a sweet musical trip to when my flare jeans were much tinier. In other women-in-music news, Ani DiFranco released Allergic to Water, and the wildly talented singer, songwriter and multi-instrumentalist Tift Merritt joins D.C. …

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The TueDo List: Yoga for Writers, the Echo and Dude Flicks You’ll Dig

By Laurie White

The first ever selfie, Yoga for Writers and Jake Gyllenhaal in Nightcrawler This week’s issue was all about—and mostly by—men. There are lots of things to do this weekend made by or featuring guys that we can all enjoy. So have at it, ladies and gents. And whatever men you happen to hang out with this weekend, may they be of the enlightened variety (and even more so after they hang out with you.) Yoga—for Writers I love San Francisco, and nothing makes me want to book a last minute ticket from DC (you know, if I were a millionaire) than Chronicle columnist Mark Morford’s Yoga for Writers class at Yoga Tree on Sunday from 1:15-4:15. “One part hotly energized yoga class, one part fearless creative writing workshop, taking turns with each, blurring the edges of both. What will emerge? How will your voice change? Can a good backbend scandalize your boring syntax?” Oh yeah. Mark promises dynamic asana sequences interspersed with bursts of creative writing exercises, and the opportunity to fulfill the dream I didn’t know …

The TueDo List: New Jeans, Scary Movies and Native American Flair

By Laurie White

This week we contemplated jeans. Now it’s time to actually put some on (or not, I guess — we’re not the boss of you) and have a blast this weekend. Our picks: Shop for Denim My best friend gave me a pair of 7 For All Mankind jeans recently and I have decided that they are my new must-have staple. I need a backup pair, but unfortunately can’t afford $175 for the new Jen7 Skinny jeans made by the designers of 7 For All Mankind. So, I’m going to skip the mall this weekend and follow all of Susan Linney’s suggestions for finding a lucky-7 bargain online. I’m typically a terrible second-hand shopper, but for this I’ll give it a shot. (And no, you can’t have my best friend.) Celebrate Native American Culture I always feel lucky to live close to the National Museum of the American Indian. This November is National Native American Month, and the museum will be holding a trove of events. This weekend’s offerings are so great that I could pretty much move in for a …

On Loving and Hating Skinny Jeans

By Laurie White

(Graphic: Kat Borosky/TueNight.com, Photo: Amazon.com) When I first heard the term “skinny jeans,” my thought was, “oh great, not-for-me jeans.” I’m not and never have been skinny — or even thin, for that matter. And while I’ll admit that there are times when I’d have liked to weigh less than I have — often for vanity and confidence but more as I’ve gotten older for health and for the joy of my knees not hurting — I’ve never aspired to skinny. I’m not a fan of the word “skinny.” It describes what I perceive as an extreme state, that in many cases even applies to people who don’t have access to enough food. It’s a strange position, to want to look like what skinny connotes to me in fashion terms. There are many people who are skinny not by choice. Seeking it? No thanks. Also, any fashion option marketed as “skinny” probably wasn’t meant for me anyway. The jeans themselves were built for skinny, right? They certainly weren’t intended for the over-size-12 crowd, so I’d …

The TueDo List: Get Spooky, Organize Your Life and Prepare for Day of the Dead

By Laurie White

Lists. We make them, we need them, we love them, we hate them. Here is a list of some fun things to do, read and buy this weekend. And more lists — some of them even about lists— in case you aren’t full up. Halloween Adventure List It’s the last weekend before All Hallow’s Eve, so the main events in most locations will involve pumpkins, costumes, ghosts and that most important component of the holiday — sugar. Finding the fun in your town is an internet search away, but there are some highlights. Baltimore has one of the coolest lists of Halloween events I’ve found, as befits a city known for its famous son, Edgar Allen Poe. Time Out Los Angeles will hook you up out there. and if I could go anywhere, I’d pick the 41st annual Village Halloween Parade in NYC (Whoopi Goldberg is this year’s grand marshal). Wherever you are, we know you can find something fun, even if it’s mini-Snickers and a movie at home, because that sounds really fun to …

The TueDo List: Make Cake, Party, Imagine

By Laurie White

It’s been an exhilarating week of celebrating TueNight’s first birthday. We got to take our festivities offline for the party we threw at We Work Park South in New York City. It was so much fun and filled with so many wonderful women. We see no reason to stop celebrating, especially since the weekend is here. So go ahead, be the girls with the most cake. We plan to. Eat (and Make) Cake I’ve always said I’m a decent cook and not a baker, so the Piping Perfection cake decorating class at L’Academie de Cuisine here in the D.C .suburbs would be good for me to try. My sister got me a gift certificate for one of their classes, which is a fantastic gift for the wannabe baker in your own life. If you live elsewhere, you can try the Institute of Culinary Education in NYC, the San Francisco Cooking School, the Chopping Block in Chicago or the Seasoned Farmhouse in Clintonville, Ohio. (Their Dia de los Muertos event sounds amazing.) Party On The party …

The TueDo List: Gone Girl, Power Pop and Powerful Candles

By Laurie White

When Power (with a capital “P”) is misdirected, things don’t always go so well. But when channeled correctly, Power can change the world. Let’s use our powers for good this weekend. Gone Girl the Movie I have never read Gillian Flynn’s Gone Girl, which is one of those books you don’t want to tell people you’ve never read, because then you have to hear all about how amazing it is. But now that it’s also a movie — one that’s getting good critical buzz — I feel relieved. Opening today, Gone Girl stars Ben Affleck and Rosamund Pike. It was adapted for the screen by Flynn, who made writing the screenplay part of the deal when the film rights were optioned. (Hail to the power of negotiation.) This agreement has paid off for the author — Flynn is now writing for director David Fincher’s new HBO series Utopia. We’ll take a wider reach for a woman in Hollywood any day. Listen Up If you like thrillers of the real-life variety, Serial, a podcast from the creators of This American …

The TueDo List: Beer, Ello, New TV and Selfies

By Laurie White

If there is a time for vices it’s the weekend. Work-free, ideally. Fun-centered, hopefully. And whatever your proclivities happen to be, it’s always the best time to find partners in crime — even if it’s just for a late-night ice cream run. We approve. Drink If you’re a beer fan, this is the best weekend of the year to get out (safely, please — don’t drive) and enjoy some brews with literally millions of others. The ultimate beer celebration — Oktoberfest — runs until October 5 in Munich, where it’s a full-fledged family celebration including masses and gun salutes. Many cities in the U.S. borrow this tradition with beer parties of their own. There are so many we’re suggesting you hit up the Beer Advocate events calendar to see what’s going on near you. Ello If the need to be on every single social media platform — and spend extensive time in the great indoors lit only by the glow of your iPhone  — Ello may be your next fix. It just launched this week, …

Taste-Testing Dark Chocolate Peanut Butter Cups — Because I Can

By Laurie White

(Photo: Margit Detweiler/TueNight) I’m not sure that the consumption of dark chocolate peanut butter cups is quite a vice, but some days when I’m really focused on devouring them, I have to admit it all feels a little shady. My sugar consumption has ramped up since I got sober last year. My body was suddenly robbed of all of the sugar in wine and, um, whatever else I could find. I discovered cupcakes first. I swore that my suddenly very smart car started driving itself directly to the cupcake store. I was so embarrassed by this that I called a friend to discuss it. What adult woman needs a daily cupcake (or three)? Who checks the flavors on Facebook at a specific cupcake store because if you ask for the secret one they’ll give it to you like it’s your birthday? Who considers an empty parking space on a busy street directly in front of the cupcake store a sign from her higher power that she is meant to have one? Who goes broke buying …

The TueDo List: Mash-Ups, Bindercon and the Sound of Our Words

By Laurie White

Sounds obvious, but our voice is what makes us unique. The question is, how best to use it? Easiest answer: However you want. It’s yours. Following this week’s theme, we thought we’d share a few unique voice-filled goodies. The Mash-Up Americans The Mash-Up Americans launched Thursday and it’s so good. Co-founders Amy S. Choi and Rebecca Lehrer aim to explore and celebrate all facets of multicultural American life, which has more or less been ignored by mainstream media. Pop culture, food, relationships — and the “real” America as we know it today. Check out Lehrer’s piece, Grab the Bull By the Balls — a look at what happens when your English is really a mash-up language. You can find The Mash-Up Americans on Twitter @mashupamerican and on Facebook at Facebook.com/mashupamericans. In a World Ever heard a female voicing a movie trailer? It’s quite unlikely. Actress Lake Bell wrote and starred in the Sundance award winning comedy In a World, which is about a woman who tries to break through the gender barrier in the film-trailer industry — only to …