“What would you do if you were me?”

That’s the haunting question a young Syrian woman by the name of Taimaa Abazli asks at the end of a video Time Magazine posted on its website, a prelude to a year-long series that follows four refugee mothers and their newborn babies.

Like so many in refugee camps in Greece, Abazli comes from an educated, middle-class world many of us would find familiar. She was a music teacher who envisioned life in a “nice house.” Now she describes her life as “ugly,” telling Time, “I didn’t expect any of the things that are happening to me.”
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Looking at her face, the way she and her husband discuss the baby’s name and the tears she sheds as she wonders why she is so unlucky, it’s hard not to feel the contrast with the plenty so many of us will enjoy Christmas Day.

Salt Lake City, that den of sin and vice; a city where anger and hatred is more prevalent than on the mean streets of Chicago; a place where jealously reigns far worse than in New York City; and a place where excesses and vices are worse than in Miami.
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Salt Lake Vice? That might not be a ratings bonanza as a new prime-time crime show. But then, the above description might come as a surprise to a vast swath of the nation and to the millions who have visited the city as tourists.

It turns out our toasters really are trying to kill us.
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The image of rogue toasters can be traced to a paper three computer security analysts wrote back in 1996. They described a fictional terrorist attack involving hacks into an air traffic control system, the use of a simple website and a Trojan horse virus that eventually wipes out computer databases and other interconnected things across a wide swath of the United States.

It’s hard to write about the current clown scare without resorting to cheap jokes about presidential politics. Yes, the race might be a squeaker, with one or the other winning by a plastic red nose — but enough about that. It’s time to get serious for a moment about the bozos wandering the streets, scaring our children.
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Bad clowns, often as illusive as Big Foot sightings, are out in force, apparently, and that includes in Utah. 

Back-to-school night with my 14-year-old this week reminded me that the beginning of a marathon is always more pleasant than the 15th mile, when you’re struggling up a hill, trying to keep focused on a distant goal.

As a veteran of both real marathons and the mid-year struggles that involve discovering your child’s massive research project is due tomorrow, I appreciated the reassuring smiles of friendly teachers and the resolve that comes with a fresh 

Sure, it’s exciting to watch American athletes who compete in obscure sports perform well during the Olympics.

And yes, it’s true many of these athletes sacrifice much for their sport. Some of them have to maintain part-time or full-time employment to keep paying the bills while they train. NBA athletes make tons of money, but unless they have a big endorsement deal, swimmers, gymnasts, table-tennis players and archers have little reward but the love of the game.

I sometimes ride my bike late at night, partly for exercise and partly as a way to unwind. Something about the wind in my face and the solitude of normally busy streets can put a stressful day in perspective.

But recently, the solitude has been AWOL. I have had to negotiate late-night pedestrians who crowd intersections, zombie-like and barely aware of their surroundings. I have had to steer clear of cars with passengers hanging phones out of windows. I watched a man jogging with a cell phone in front of his face.

Americans have a penchant for fads. Nearly 100 years ago, some of our ancestors sat atop flagpoles for days while thousands watched below. At various times, we have gathered en mass to throw discs, twirl Hula Hoops, bounce Super Balls or dump buckets of ice over our heads.

My father’s final days did not fit any textbook definition of a quality life. He suffered from the advanced stages of dementia. He didn’t know who I was. In a rare moment when he seemed somewhat lucid, I asked him if he was scared. The look in his eyes as he nodded still brings tears to my eyes.

And yet he and I shared some of our most tender times together during those days. My stepmother at times would ask me to come to Arizona and stay 

The only difference between what Omar Mateen did last Sunday and what Sulejman Talović did at Trolley Square nine years ago lies in the magnitude of casualties.
Mateen killed 49, Talović killed five.

The same may be said for Sergei Babarin, who 

The Fox News website posted a straightforward story earlier this month about President Obama’s daughter, Malia, and her plans to attend Harvard in 2017, after taking a year off from school.
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It didn’t take long before the site had to remove all comments from the story. As the Teen Vogue website reported, people were calling the president’s daughter all sorts of nasty things, from “ape” to the infamous “N” word.