Lori Falce stories, Page 2
Feed your cookie monsters with easy, at-home takes on Crumbl bakes
Cookies are cool right now. Or are they hot? At trendy bakeries like Crumbl, they’re both. They feature fist-sized cookies sometimes served warm from the oven with oozing melty chocolate or chilled to keep smooth frostings at a perfect cream-pie temperature. But just like the cupcake shops that came before...
Lori Falce: What’s left for pregnant women?
“Take two aspirin, and call me in the morning” is a cliché for a reason. It is the standard, trite advice you expected from your doctor about 100 years ago. It meant to just relax, take these two innocuous tablets for your headache, and get some sleep, the idea being...
It’s a luck o’ the Irish tailgate for the Steelers
There are certain foods that go with certain things and certain places. In Ireland, for example, you might expect to have a strong cup of tea instead of the coffee you would enjoy in the U.S. There could be a nice biscuit with it, where Americans would favor some cookies....
Lori Falce: How a movie star made people want to be journalists
When the news of Robert Redford’s passing came on Tuesday, it struck me hard. I believe it struck a lot of journalists the same way. For those of us of a certain age, Redford was not Waldo Pepper or Jay Gatsby or Jeremiah Johnson. He may have been the shadow...
Lori Falce: Finding a solution to political violence is science fiction
One of the best things that my husband gave me was an introduction to “Doctor Who.” Yes, I know, you are here for the politics on a week where the news is kind of noteworthy. But trust me, we’ll get there. We just have a slight sci-fi detour. I resisted...
Lori Falce: Who wants to be a Powerball billionaire?
The tickets to my future are tucked in my wallet next to my driver’s license and an overburdened credit card. They are the 10 different lines of numbers to play for the Powerball lottery. They should have cost $20. They were only $16 because I won $4 in Wednesday’s drawing...
Lori Falce: 26 years of thoughts and prayers
My head is full of thoughts. My soul is full of prayers. And my heart is filled with rage, a red-hot glowing anger that, once again, children have been shot and killed. In Minneapolis, Robin Westman, 23, armed with a handgun, rifle and shotgun, fired into the church where children...
Lori Falce: Museums must be honest repositories of history
When I was a kid, we didn’t go on vacation to beaches or amusement parks. We didn’t take cruises or spend a week at the lake. My vacations were spent hiking across history and crawling through the cracks of time. I walked in Sacajawea’s footsteps. I climbed up the side...
Lori Falce: Why do ICE officers need masks?
There is a time and a place for masks. Halloween. Raccoons. A fancy fairy tale ballroom. Completely appropriate. You should definitely wear one if you’re performing surgery. Do you have a respiratory infection that could infect others? Absolutely. But in the course of arresting people, is it appropriate for law...
Lori Falce: Texas redistricting rips up the rules
To play a game, you have to have rules. Even children know you can’t change where base is in the middle of a game of tag. You don’t change the number of spaces a pawn can move in chess. You don’t push back the chains for a first down after...
Lori Falce: Trump’s interest in interest rates
On Wednesday, Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell did what needed to be done rather than what President Donald Trump wanted him to do. Powell announced that the Fed was leaving short-term interest rates unchanged, declining to cut them from the 4.3% rate where they have stood for months. The Fed...
Lori Falce: The difference between debate and argument
Put your hands up! You’re “Surrounded.” No, you aren’t a bank robber being confronted on all sides by police. In this case, you would be on a YouTube video by Jubilee Media, a content producer with 10.2 million subscribers. “Surrounded” is a series that debuted in the lead-up to the...
Lori Falce: Jeffrey Epstein, Donald Trump and the unexpected consequences of encouraging supporters
When my sister was in second grade, we went to church on a Friday morning for her first confession. The church was huge, with an echoing quality amplified by its tomblike silence. One by one, the little kids shuffled into the confessional while parents and other Catholic school students sat...
Lori Falce: The lessons of Abraham Lincoln and a house divided
In 1858, after winning the Republican nomination for the Senate against incumbent Stephen Douglas, Abraham Lincoln gave a speech that has stood the test of time because of the truth it laid plain before a country ripping itself in two. “A house divided against itself cannot stand,” the future president...
Peckish prior to Picklesburgh? Pick a peck of pickle snacks
There’s nothing quite like a pickle. A brine of vinegar, water, sugar, salt, herbs and spices is a magic potion that turns a fresh veggie into something else entirely. It works with onions, olives, carrots, green beans, cauliflower, peppers and more. But the word “pickle” and the puckery pop synonymous...
You’ll flip over upside-down cakes
Some cakes are so fancy, they are intimidating. French gateaux and Viennese tortes. The kind of things you see on “The Great British Bake Off.” Those cakes on the internet that you believed in your heart were a tennis ball or a rack of ribs or a sleeping dog. Those...
Lori Falce: UPMC decision slams door on trans youths
UPMC will not be providing gender-affirming care to those 18 and under after this month. The move comes after President Donald Trump’s executive order in January titled “Protecting Children from Chemical and Surgical Mutilation.” The wording of the order is no doubt purposeful. Politically, it’s an old favorite of both...
Lori Falce: Lee’s words about Minnesota victims must be remembered
On Saturday, when Minnesota state Rep. Melissa Hortman and her husband were murdered, and state Sen. John Hoffman and his wife were gunned down, they were not the only casualties. And no, I don’t just mean that there were other people killed in gun violence that day. I’m not even...
Lori Falce: Los Angeles confrontations are becoming less about immigration than First Amendment
The United States of America had barely taken its first breath as a nation governed by the Constitution when it was realized that changes were needed. While we will celebrate Independence Day on July 4 as the country’s 249th birthday, that’s a bit wrong. That was the day we declared...
Lori Falce: The bromance is over
In December, as the Biden administration was winding down and the air was thick with plans for the second Donald Trump term in the White House, I asked a question. I looked at the events surrounding the continuing resolution bill making its way through both chambers of Congress with bipartisan...
Editorial: Aaron Rodgers and the politics of playing games
Aaron Rodgers is the talk of Pittsburgh sports, which is fascinating since there’s no proof he will ever have anything to do with Pittsburgh sports. For months, the potential of the former Green Bay Packers and (briefly) New York Jets quarterback to don the black and gold for at least...
Lori Falce: Due process, habeas corpus and the burden of American jurisprudence
Navigating the law isn’t easy. There is a reason lawyers go to school for so long, pay so much for their education and in turn charge what they do per hour. The law is not as easy as “thou shalt not.” It requires deeper understanding of not just what is...
Lori Falce: The endangerment of the rule of law
You cannot have order without having law. Well, theoretically you could. If everyone just instinctively did the right thing, that would be great. No laws needed! But once you involve people, human nature, emotions and all of the quirky little things that complicate our lives, suddenly laws become pretty important....
Lori Falce: Let them have dolls
Christmas isn’t just a festive holiday. Not in the U.S., at least. Christmas is also business — big business. Overall, the National Retail Federation puts sales during November and December at about 19% of the annual total. For perspective, the monthly average is around 8%, which means those last two...
No excuse for Kennedy’s lack of understanding autism
If you are not one of the people who was deeply offended by U.S. Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr.’s recent statements about the deficiencies of people with autism, I will assume that you do not know anyone with autism. Or at least, you think you don’t....
