Kefir the kitty is 27 pounds of powerful, purring catliness — Kefir is large. He is, by all accounts, something of a big boy. He is a kitty of considerable — even copious—capacity. One might be tempted to describe his size as “excessive,” but that would be wrong: He is exactly the right size—it’s just that the size that he happens…

Are you one of these Zoom dogs? — The One Who’s Always on Mute Somehow Waffles thinks that if he just shouts loud enough he’ll be able to overpower the mute button. The One Who Thought Their Camera Was Off Barkley’s gotten very used to the remote-work lifestyle but he still hasn’t quite mastered the “Stop Video” button. This is unfortunate for everyone involved.

You can learn everything you need to know about a person based on how they start a Wordle — Some Wordlers choose their starter word based purely on its aesthetic qualities. Others prefer to slaughter as many vowels as possible with hate in their hearts and the ruthless efficiency of a machine. And some Wordlers flit from word to word like whimsical little sprites with no damn sense of…

Rebranding for the 13th century — The Middle Ages were a pretty tough time to live through, what with the Black Death, average life expectancy at around 33 years, the brutal conditions of serfdom, and (as far as my research can discover) absolutely zero access to Brand Strategy Consultants who could help…

A lovely, silly image captured at just the right moment — Nature is a beautiful mystery and a photographer with the right eye can pay homage to its endless variety by patiently waiting for precious moments like the morning sun catching dew drops on a marigold, or a pronghorn fawn frolicking with her siblings. But it’s widely known that the real…

Illustrated, quite helpfully, by Medieval art. — There is no known cure for the affliction of being a “people pleaser,” and even if there were, those of us who are sufferers would likely turn it down out of fear that it might be too much trouble for someone to administer. Or else we’d be too busy helping…

And yes, it’s mostly cats. — When historians finally get around to writing the story of 2021, they will not pause to ask themselves what the cats were up to. This will be entirely appropriate, but that doesn’t make it a bad question, and for those of us who are inclined to find a silver lining…

How Kristy, Mary Anne, Claudia, and even Stacey taught this Dad to live his best life. — I’m the host of the Baby-Sitters Club Club podcast (now called Strange Bedfellows). This essay is reprinted from the excellent collection We Are the Baby-Sitters Club: Essays and Artwork from Grown-Up Readers. I’m a Mary Anne. I like to read and I’m shy. Wait, no, that’s not quite right. I’m…

These breathtaking photographs are the winners of the Astronomy Photographer of the Year Competition — The 13th annual Astronomy Photographer of the Year Competition conducted by the Royal Observatory in Greenwich has produced an awe-inspiring array of images of cosmic phenomena, from colorful nebulae to solar eclipses to swirling storm clouds above Jupiter. …