HeyJaredWhy the World Wags
Reflections (and the odd laugh) on life, loss, and literature from a travel-hungry, baseball-obsessed writer with family ever on her mind.
- Indexed issues, last 90 days
- 4
- Latest publication
- Sep 22, 2026
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- Earliest in this view
- Jul 5, 2026
Latest issues
My City’s Secret Shame (opens the original)
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Subscribe nowLast week, I had reason to spend time in steamy, mid-September downtown Atlanta. As I passed through Five Points, the broad intersection of Peachtree, Marietta, Edgewood and Decatur Streets, I thought about an important but thinly publicized incident that began there 120 hot Septembers ago. It’s a significant anniversary, 120 years, especially for an episode as violent, deadly, and consequential as this one was. A third-generation Atlantan, I was well into middle-age before I learne
The Family Dog(s) (opens the original)
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Meet Ruby. By my count, she’s the ninth in a pretty much continuous line of family dogs. The shelter where we adopted her provided, or should I say seduced us with, the first photo. It was late summer, 2022, three months after we lost Ruby’s predecessor, Hazelnut, a bit prematurely. Still doggy-bereft, I fell hard for the Rubes’ gentle, playful eyes and coppery fur. Nearly a year before this, Ruby had been found, unchipped and uncollared, loitering in a McDonald’s parking lot (smart girl). Her D
Tending Bar (opens the original)
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A Tale of Two Cousins (opens the original)
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Like everyone else in the US of A, I’ve been thinking about our nation’s 250th. To mark the occasion, I decided to share a piece I wrote a few years ago. Both historical and contemporary, the piece reflects a moral struggle I imagine will be familiar to many Americans who claim deep roots in this country. Thanks to a few of my particularly open-minded and caring distant cousins, the story has a happy resolution.I hope you find the piece meaningful. During a late sweep through the dark corners of
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