I drove by a Black Lives Matter protest in my small Vermont hometown last week, and I didn’t stop. Not because the movement itself, and the powerful need for it, doesn’t stir me. In fact, it stirs me too much. “Sorry people,” I thought. “The powers that be aren’t going…

Ride Details: Lyft fare (11.73mi, 18m 10s) $13.60 Pickup 308 Domestic Terminals Departures Level, San Francisco Dropoff Home “Hey there, for Johanna?” “Hi.” “You here visiting?” “No, I live here. I was just in Phoenix for a wedding.” “Okay. So, how do they do weddings in the U.S.?” “What do you mean?” “Like, who…

Ride Details: Lyft fare (11.52 miles, 21m 24s) $18.19 Pickup 1546 Sky Harbor Cir S, Phoenix Dropoff 3990 N 1st Ave, Scottsdale “Hey, Yousif?” “Yes, hi.” “Is this your first time in Phoenix?” “First time visiting. Passed through a bunch. You like it here?” “Oh yeah, I love it.” “Are you from…

The sodden tufts of grass that make their way, disaffected, between rocks on the cliff edge and along the cattle grates, remind me that all things press on without permission. And so what if the trees lean to one side, the wind passing over their backs? And so what if the clouds make a coy engagement…

This is the fifth chapter of Cheese Dreams, an experiment in which I sacrifice my body in order to uncover the science of cheese-induced dreaming. In a shining example of good begets good, I watched my friend’s dog while she was vacationing in Norway, and she brought me chocolate-covered blue…

This is the fourth chapter of Cheese Dreams, part of a mock scientific report where I test the theory that cheese gives you crazy dreams. As it turns out, camping creates the perfect condition for cheese dreams for three main reasons: Sleeping outside in a tent means that you’re almost…

What follows in the third chapter of Cheese Dreams is an account of a self-experiment in which I test the theory that cheese before bed can give you psychedelic dreams. (Read the first Cheese Dreams entry for context. Or don’t. I mean, it’s a blog post.) This dream starred my…

What follows in the second chapter of Cheese Dreams are the notes of a pseudo-pseudo-scientific experiment wherein I consume different types of cheese before bed to test the Cheese Dreams theory. (See the first Cheese Dreams entry for further information on background, hypothesis and protocol.) The format of this post…

I first learned of the cheese dream prophesy while half-drunk in London. The nice London boy who I was drunk with couldn’t believe that I had never heard that eating cheese before bed gives you very real, very strange dreams. It reminded me of something — perhaps the only thing…