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I once met the actor and director Robert Redford.   I was a young reporter in Denver back then, covering the state legislature and Colorado governor’s office for the now-defunct Rocky Mountain News. I’d received a tip that Redford was set to have breakfast the following morning at the Governor’s Mansion with then-Gov. Dick Lamm. I showed up early and met Redford at the door. After introducing myself,...

“Why don’t you like bananas?”   This is a question I used to get constantly from my children, and get constantly from my grandchildren, all of whom are militant banana enthusiasts. These are people who will eagerly wolf down bananas straight from the peel, sliced onto their cereal, blended into smoothies, and baked into muffins. They view the banana not merely as a fruit, but as a foundational...

Anyone who knows me knows I have a soft spot for anything that flies—with the notable exceptions of mosquitoes and those terrifyingly winged monkeys from The Wizard of Oz. I was convinced as a kid that one of those flying demons was going to swoop down in broad daylight and snatch me out of the backyard. To this day, I still can’t watch that movie without feeling a...

Let’s talk about bougie.   Not because I want to, but because apparently, I have to. One minute I’m living my life peacefully, eating Cheez-Its from the box like a perfectly normal person, and the next, someone tells me that my snack of choice is “not very bougie.” Suddenly I’m spiraling. Do I want to be bougie? Am I supposed to be? Is Cheez-Its-from-the-box anti-bougie or post-bougie? Is...

Upon occasion, you come across a novel that—if you’ll pardon the cliché—hits it out of the park. You crack open the first page, and by page two, you know you’re in trouble. The kind of trouble that keeps you up past midnight, ignoring text messages, blowing off obligations, and contemplating how much sleep you really need before work the next morning. The story grabs you by the (insert...