It’s like I joined the Witness Protection Program, except the exact opposite. Hi. I’m Susan. I used to go by Malyshka, which isn’t my real name, but I decided that doing so was dumb. So now I go by Susan, which IS my real name. Hi! You should still ask me stuff. This week, I’m […]
Tag: control
This past week, I’ve spent a lot of time reading about canning. Tomato season is upon us and I want to make a lot of homemade pasta sauce while the tomatoes are good. There is no way to make this endeavor a money-saving one: the cost of the ingredients alone is going to make this […]
The Allure of the Mystery Novel

There isn’t much that tops Hercule Poirot getting worked up into a lather because of the “little gray cells.” Maybe when he reveals the murderer at the end, or when he goes head-to-head with modern police technology and comes up triumphant. In mystery novels, the only question ties back to the crime ““ from start […]
How often do you hear or say phrases like this? “My eating is so out of control.”
Sssshhhh!!! Can You Keep a Secret?
In Hey, That’s MY Business! Information Control I talked about the ways people try to control others by attempting to dictate what they can and can’t talk about. Some people, I argued, like to label topics as “their business,” which is to put it plainly, a lie.
Every one of us, I’m sure, has been on the receiving end of a variation of this kind of complaint: “Why did you tell such and such about what happened at Starbucks last Tuesday? That’s MY business!”
Control
Yesterday, my father sent me an email about the dangers of compact fluorescent light bulbs. Apparently if they are broken, they will emit mercury and kill you. In the last month his emails have taught me how to check my power-steering fluid levels, that my major is among the top 5 lowest-earning, where to call […]