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“Oh, that’s why they’re bad,” is what we’re supposed to say. The last decade has seen a rise in popularity of fictional villain origin stories. Whether it’s a segment in a movie about the hero of the story or a full feature film, many franchises have begun rewriting the history…

My screenwriting class sat in stunned silence as they stared at the picture on the screen. Finally, light chuckles filtered through the room. “Whenever you think someone has already done it,” I said to them, “remember this picture.” On the screen was the infamous meme of Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson…

There wasn’t a person on earth who knew more than I did at my 38th week of pregnancy. That’s what I thought, at least. With an incredible OB-GYN team in my city, a sister who served as my “virtual” obstetrician before that was even a thing, an overly attentive husband,…

My heart sank as I walked the length of the terminal. Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International Airport is considered the busiest airport in the world, and I felt like the millions of travelers it serves yearly were all in Terminal D. To make matters worse, every gate I passed had…

Usually, there’s screaming. Other times, there’s writhing and doubling over. But more often than not, there’s screaming. Every May around Mother’s Day, it’s easy to find a video where men, and occasionally young teenage girls, try a labor-pain simulator. Under normal circumstances, the simple contraption, a standard transcutaneous electrical…

“Are you OK?” my husband, Paul, asked, his voice laced with concern. The question seemed out of the blue and took me off guard. After a long day of work, running errands, and wrangling kids, I’d finally settled into bed to engage in my favorite downtime activity of watching crime…

“No!” my mom’s voice bellowed. I immediately laughed. I couldn’t see her, but I heard the undertone of laughter in my mother’s voice. She was answering — or wasn’t — my very loud “Hey, Ma!” from another room in the house. Because we were a few weeks away from my…

With all odds against him, it was his last chance to win the game. During a football game in November 1984, the University of Miami was set to beat Boston College, leading 45-41. Although Boston College had possession of the ball, because they were more than 60 yards away from…

“You actually trust him to babysit?” the woman asked me. Although it wasn’t my first time hearing it, the question still took me off guard. When our four children were younger, I was a stay-at-home mom. Even though our oldest children were in school, the twins had yet to reach…

“I feel like it’ll be a little easier when they start moving,” my friend said as we had lunch in a local sandwich shop. A laugh bubbled up and escaped my mouth before I could stop it. Thankfully, my friend wasn’t offended. But it was clear that I was laughing…