All posts tagged: Hobby

Getting High Off Your Hobby

Getting High Off Your Hobby

Published by Jenni Sidey

I first smoked weed in college, along with maybe half or more of my contemporaries. If memory serves, it was barely more than 24 hours after I moved into my tiny dorm room and unpacked my duffel bag. Paul, my best friend from high school, new college roommate, and partner in crime, was also a marijuana virgin. He scored a couple of joints the day after move-in, and we decided to take the illicit plunge that evening. We weren’t totally naïve. We’d both attended parties where, in cross-legged circles on the floor, joints were passed around amongst friends. But Paul and I always graciously opted not to partake and were never pressured. My hesitance was fear-based: fear of the law, of being stigmatized, of my parents, of altering my brain chemistry and DNA. Besides, I wasn’t the type of kid who did bad things like drugs—especially when authorities were saying weed was a gateway to ruinous addictions. Paul and I didn’t need to get high to get paranoid. When the time came to light up, …

Ancient Forgeries & Hobby Lobby | Madeleine Schwartz

Ancient Forgeries & Hobby Lobby | Madeleine Schwartz

Published by Jenni Sidey

In 2012 I enrolled in a master’s program at Oxford to study papyrology. Of the many subfields in classics, papyrology is perhaps the most difficult to understand but also the most bewitching. It is one of the only types of classical scholarship through which new texts can still be found; there is always the promise that the pieces of reedy paper papyrologists conserve and study could contain unknown work. Archaeologists began to look for these texts in the middle of the nineteenth century, after a discovery of carbonized books at the Italian city of Herculaneum a century earlier—mainly works of philosophy—drew public attention to the vast array of ancient literature that might still be brought to light. “What rapture! could ye seize/Some Theban fragment,” Wordsworth wrote in 1819, “or unroll/One precious, tender-hearted scroll/Of pure Simonides.” Egypt promised still greater treasures, since the dry climate that kept mummies intact was also good for preserving papyrus, a fragile material made from the pith of the papyrus plant. In the early nineteenth century, after Egyptian peasants happened upon …

If A Grandma Has Any Of These 11 Hobbies, Her Grandkids Probably Want To Hang Out With Her All The Time

If A Grandma Has Any Of These 11 Hobbies, Her Grandkids Probably Want To Hang Out With Her All The Time

Published by Jenni Sidey

There’s nothing more endearing than a grandma who has her own unique, quirky personality. It usually trickles down into the kind of home that they create for their family, especially their grandkids. Their houses feel comfortable, and it’s just so easy to be around them. You never feel like you’re going to walk into the room and immediately be judged or dismissed. Instead, you just feel incredibly welcome. The closeness that happens between grandmas and their grandkids is usually built from small moments that kids remember for the rest of their lives. But it’s also beneficial for grandmothers as well, considering research has suggested providing care for grandchildren may help older adults maintain stronger memory and verbal skills, too. When a grandma is consistently creating a space that feels warm and relaxed, her grandkids naturally just want to keep coming back. A lot of that has to do with the hobbies she has. The things a grandma genuinely enjoys shape how much fun it is to be around her. Some hobbies help invite fun conversations …

6 of the Best New Granny Hobby Books

6 of the Best New Granny Hobby Books

Published by Jenni Sidey

Grace Lapointe’s fiction has been published in Kaleidoscope, Deaf Poets Society, Mobius: The Journal of Social Change, and is forthcoming in Corporeal Lit Mag. Her essays and poetry have been published in Wordgathering. Her stories and essays—including ones that she wrote as a college student—have been taught in college courses and cited in books and dissertations. More of her work is at https://gracelapointe.wordpress.com, Medium, and Ao3. View All posts by Grace Lapointe Grace Lapointe’s fiction has been published in Kaleidoscope, Deaf Poets Society, Mobius: The Journal of Social Change, and is forthcoming in Corporeal Lit Mag. Her essays and poetry have been published in Wordgathering. Her stories and essays—including ones that she wrote as a college student—have been taught in college courses and cited in books and dissertations. More of her work is at https://gracelapointe.wordpress.com, Medium, and Ao3. View All posts by Grace Lapointe One of my editors told me that kids today refer to cozy hobbies as “granny hobbies.” Of course, people of all ages and genders enjoy them. People who enjoy hobbies like …