Don’t Think of Elephants

Alison Umminger · 09/29/12 11:10AM

The sonogram technician, Tina, is short, conservative. Her two children smile from pictures of birthday parties past, blonde and generic, proof that life in all its red, white and blue glory does go on. The younger of the two is missing teeth, mugging for the camera and aiming an ice cream cone directly at the viewer. You are not at the point where you resent other people's children, though you can see how it sometimes happens.

Louis Peitzman · 09/29/12 09:58AM

Influential former New York Times publisher Arthur O. Sulzberger has died at 86.

NYC Puts at Least One Restriction on Mohels Sucking Freshly Circumcised Baby Penises

Cord Jefferson · 09/28/12 06:55PM

Call me crazy, but I don't think it should be legal for adults to suck the blood from freshly circumcised baby penises. Alas, doing just that is a very important ritual for some Orthodox Jews. Called metzitzah b'peh, the process involves the mohel snipping away the foreskin and then sucking the blood from the penis to "cleanse" the wound. Obviously putting saliva on an open wound isn't considered an antiseptic practice in any realm of modern medicine, especially when that open wound belongs to an infant with a barely there immune system. Indeed, since 2002, metzitzah b'peh has been responsible for spreading Type 1 herpes, a very common condition in American adults, to 11 different babies, killing two of them and giving two others brain damage, according to ABC News.

Caity Weaver · 09/28/12 05:43PM

Harvest moon tonight, so if the moon looks extra big and bright, that's why. It might also be hurtling towards Earth OMG

Robert Kessler · 09/28/12 04:47PM

A dolphin is either dead, alive, or dead after washing ashore a beach in Queens this morning. RIP/live long and prosper!