Lori Falce stories, Page 9
Lori Falce: Blinded by political party colors
There was a time in my life when I couldn’t tell you the political parties of almost anyone I knew. Parties didn’t define any of those people as much as other things about them. They weren’t Democrats or Republicans. They were teachers, bankers, farmers, electricians, nurses, housewives, mechanics, retirees, students....
Lori Falce: Corporate sponsorship is more honest than politics
If you live in Pennsylvania or follow football or eat ketchup, you are no doubt aware the Pittsburgh Steelers venue went to bed Sunday as Heinz Field and woke up Monday as Acrisure Stadium. For many of the faithful, this has been a shock to the system. For the more...
Lori Falce: Rage is driving Americans crazy
When tragedies like the Highland Park parade shooting or the Uvalde school shooting or the Tree of Life synagogue shooting or (insert whichever shooting hit you hardest here) occur, there is always the division between people who want to do something about guns and people who say regulating guns won’t...
Lori Falce: The cautionary tale of Supreme Court precedent
We like to think of the law as something resolute as stone, strong as a diamond, immutable as iron. The law is the law. If it is flexible, what is the point? The law has to provide us the framework for society to function, and it cannot do that if...
Lori Falce: Staking a claim for the word “the”
For years, former president Bill Clinton has been the butt of jokes about his cagey answer in grand jury testimony in which he showed his lawyer stripes and true politician colors by parsing the definition of the verb “to be.” “It depends on what the meaning of the word ‘is’...
How to feed a big BBQ crowd for a little budget
One of the best parts of summer is getting together with friends and family for a backyard barbecue. But how do you get your party on when inflation is driving food prices higher than the hot summer temperatures? You don’t have to forgo the cookout. You just have to plan...
Lori Falce: Formula shortage hits babies’ health and parents’ sanity
The baby formula shortage might seem like yet another in an ongoing series of random supply chain problems since the start of the coronavirus pandemic and the global economic complications that followed. Unless one is the parent of an infant. Then it could seem more like a siege. Oh, come...
Lori Falce: The tarnished crown of being a princess
Like most little girls, I went through a phase where I wanted to be a princess. It lasted until my early 40s. You have to admit the position has a lot to recommend it. Castles. Plural — as if one castle wasn’t enough. A very real possibility of promotion to...
Lori Falce: What’s the real outcome of Depp-Heard trial?
Our long national nightmare is over. The Johnny Depp-Amber Heard trial has come to an end. OK, I’m going to confess. I have been caught up in the weeks of testimony. The drama. The endless analysis of movie stars emoting in a courtroom and just as endless criticism of lawyers’...
Lori Falce: Stop telling me what won’t work
Every single time I hear about a school shooting, I am back to that Friday in December 2012. Around 10 a.m., I started making calls to area schools to get reactions to the Sandy Hook Elementary shooting. I was asking if the districts would be placing schools on lockdown or...
Lori Falce: Diagramming, commas and politics
You know how in school there are things you learn that seem utterly pointless and with no impact on your real life? Like how most people will never need to know anything about the Battle of Hastings. Or how most adults will agree they never used a quadratic equation after...
Lori Falce: The sordid case of the celebrity trial
I have never served on a jury. I’ve been called twice. Once was after I had already moved out of the county in question. The second time was while my mail was being held at the post office and I didn’t end up getting the notice until about two weeks...
Lori Falce: What I needed when I was bullied
Kids are resilient. When I was 9 years old, I was walking home from my Catholic school when several boys popped up from behind a car in the church parking lot and started pelting me with gravel while they called me a pig and made oinking sounds. A mom dragged...
Lori Falce: Why don’t we call Americans oligarchs?
When talking about Russia’s politics, espionage, criminal activities and, of course, the war in Ukraine, one word pops up with regularity. Oligarchs. The way in which it is used, and the authority that it conveys, makes it sound like oligarchs are an official position within the country. They might well...
Lori Falce: We could all be these parents
Where are the parents? Since Sunday, when Jaiden Za’mar Brown of North Braddock and Mathew Steffy-Ross of Pitcairn were shot and killed at a party on Pittsburgh’s North Side, I have heard that phrase repeated several times. I feel it each time like a punch I see coming and have...
Lori Falce: The blessing of quiet prayer
When I was a kid, we didn’t have Good Friday off. We spent it as we spent the Friday afternoons of Lent leading up to it — in church, following along as the Stations of the Cross walked us through the milestones of the Easter story. There was no question...
Lori Falce: Why are we reluctant to tax billionaires?
Who wants to be a billionaire? It’s an aspirational number that most people can’t truly fathom. Oh, they’d like to, but it’s hard to truly appreciate. The median household income in Pennsylvania is around $50,000. If you were able to hold on to every penny — spending nothing on food...
Lori Falce: Who should the Academy really investigate?
The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences is opening an investigation into Will Smith and the The Slap Heard ’Round the World. Except, wait a minute. No, they’re really not. From the moment Smith charged the stage during the live Oscars broadcast and slapped comedian Chris Rock for a...
Lori Falce: ‘Woman’ transcends a simple definition
“Can you provide a definition for the word ‘woman?’” Sen. Marsha Blackburn, R-Tenn., asked Supreme Court nominee Judge Ketanji Brown Jackson this question Tuesday during the Senate judiciary committee confirmation hearings. There have been less obvious traps in Scooby Doo cartoons. Blackburn clearly wanted to coax Jackson to the edge...
Lori Falce: Would you kill Baby Hitler?
It’s the kind question that has been around forever. It’s the college coffeehouse brainstorming or the debate you have at the bar after a few drinks. It is the plot of movies and television shows and the books we read at the beach. It jump starts philosophy essays and thought...
Lori Falce: Banning books cages potential
The most miraculous invention in the history of the world is not something with a plug or gas tank. It is not a medicine or surgical technique. It doesn’t fly you to the moon or explore the inner workings of the Earth. But without it, none of that would have...
Lori Falce: Kanye West and the dangers of ignoring mental health
I am somehow confident that if I decided to make repeated veiled and not-so-veiled threats against an ex’s new love interest, I would receive a visit from law enforcement. This would be especially likely if those threats were on my social media accounts with just a thousand or so followers...
Lori Falce: The family drama of international politics
Sisters have a special kind of relationship. They share a bond that is hard to compare to anything else. They share more than just DNA and a bathroom and Grandma’s eyes. They are the only ones who will understand the highs and lows, the good and bad, the in-jokes and...
Lori Falce: Why doesn’t Russia play by the rules?
The rules never seem to be the rules in Russia. Not when it comes to politics or borders or even sports. It might seem ironic that the Russia-Ukraine situation is escalating in tensions at the same time the world’s athletes are gathered in China in what is supposed to be...
Lori Falce: The unreliable yardstick of the N-word
I was in second grade the first time I heard it. The N-word. It was used casually, without thought or explanation, like hundreds of other words a 7-year-old hears every day, leaving me to puzzle it out with context clues. It was said matter- of-factly, the same way someone would call...
