Lori Falce stories, Page 12

I frequently tell my son that more can happen in a short period of time than he thinks. This usually happens as I am pushing him to clean his room or bring down the laundry or take out the trash or empty the dishwasher. Seriously, the boy has very few...

They call it “the trolley problem.” It’s a question that I first encountered in my very favorite course at Penn State — a small philosophy class with a professor who cared much less about the grade you earned than the things you thought and what they motivated you to do....

If there is one thing that the coronavirus pandemic cannot stifle, it is our voices. I see that every day in the letters that come through my inbox, and the comments that dangle from my online content like icicles. If anything, it seems one more side effect of this new...

I love science. A casual glance at my high school report card might make that hard to believe, but it’s true. If social studies is the mythology of how we came to be where we are today, science is the magic. The simple recipes of adding this element to that...

Do the math. It’s a pithy, sarcastic little phrase that says if you take all of your numbers, line them up and funnel them into the right columns, you will get the answer that you want. There is just one problem. Sometimes that is exactly what happens. The thing about...

My mother called me to ask if I had plans for the weekend. Being that it is a pandemic and there are no movies to attend or restaurants to patronize or museums to visit, no, I do not. “Great,” she said. “I can come see you.” It hurt to tell...

On Wednesday, my groceries were delivered. I had tried to get an Instacart window for more than a week. We didn’t have ham at my house for Easter because the earliest time I could get was Monday. So there I was, Monday morning, trying to focus on reading and research...

We all can’t wait to get back to normal. This coronavirus shutdown is getting to everyone. We all want to get out of our houses, go back to work and be able to shop again like it’s an activity, maybe even a hobby, instead of a Navy SEAL excursion. We...

If you went shopping before schools closed and businesses started shutting down last month, you were probably worried about stocking up on things that would last a long time. You weren’t thinking about celebrating a holiday in quarantine. But as the coronavirus numbers have grown and the state has lengthened...

I have never wanted to home-school. While I want my son to reach for knowledge, and I want to be his partner in finding it, I have never wanted to be his teacher. That is largely because I am all too aware of my strengths and my weaknesses, and how...

I have spent my life in the shadow of people who have lived more than I have. My grandma was 92 when she died. She taught me how to make the perfect chocolate cake and about facing the world with grace and dignity no matter what happened to you. My...

Working from home is one of those things that sounds better in theory than in practice. What’s not to like, right? You can come to the 8:30 a.m. meeting in your pajamas. You can lie on your couch while you answer emails. You can have a real lunch instead of...

My son is at home today, no doubt ignoring his vocabulary and the math homework he should be getting done in favor of battling zombies on his PlayStation. I did not keep him home because of coronavirus. Well, not because I am afraid of coronavirus. No, he is home because...

I once stood on a mountain of shale at a strip-mine site the day before Thanksgiving with several local politicians and one female state official. As the guys took their time, yukking it up with all the time in the world, she stood further back with me, impatiently glancing at...

“But why do you have to put it up there in black and white? Why does there have to be a headline? Why can’t you just let it go?” I‘ve had this conversation before. “Why do you have to write about Jerry Sandusky? It makes Penn State look bad.” “Why...

George Washington did not want to be president. He was a good general, as his victories in the Revolutionary War proved. He was a keen businessman. He thought of himself primarily as a farmer. “While I realize the arduous nature of the task which is conferred on me and feel...

“Love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast. It is not proud. It does not dishonor others, it is not self-seeking, it is not easily angered, it keeps no record of wrongs. Love does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth. It...

When I watch the Super Bowl, I do it with an eye toward what I love. If the Steelers are playing, my allegiances are easy. If the Patriots are playing, yeah, that’s easy too, although in a year like 2018 when New England faced off against Philadelphia? There’s just no...

Groundhog Day isn’t here until Sunday but I feel like I’ve been living it for months. Remember the Bill Murray movie where Groundhog Day never ended? Where no matter what happened when he got up in the morning, no matter how he screwed things up or fixed what went wrong,...

It is a time-honored staple of sitcoms and school-set movies that kids are gullible, especially when it comes to elections. There has never been a television or film representation of a student body presidential race that didn’t include the most outlandish of campaign promises. Perhaps the best comes from the...

I am an equal opportunity story lover. I love books and movies and television shows that are a chocolate box of options. I like rom-coms and chick lit and sweeping Jane Austen-esque tales of love and duty and sacrifice. I love action movies and comic book heroes. I embrace science...

I kept a little running tally in the corner of my notebook while the meeting went on. Interspersed with the critical business of running a university, the Penn State trustees and administrators would drop certain words so often I started to wonder if there was a cash prize or a...

It’s January 2020. Resolution time. Are you too fat? There are dozens, if not hundreds, of apps, books, programs, subscription-based meal delivery services and trendy diets out there waiting to tell you what you’ve done wrong, what you should look like and how to change — for a price. Not...

Just what is a decade? Who knew that was a complicated question? One of the most humbling parts of writing for a news organization every day is the never ending stream of people willing — nay, eager — to tell you exactly what you got wrong. We even make it...

It is blockbusting. It is epic. It is the massive story years in the making that closes out the decade. And depending on the reviews you read, it’s a terrible failure or a stunning masterpiece. I might be talking about “Star Wars: Rise of Skywalker.” I might be talking about...