About Molly Edmonds
As a precocious child growing up in the mountains of North Carolina, Molly Edmonds would often prepare miniature school lessons for her younger brothers. If her brothers didn't want to play school, Molly sat on them to prevent possible escape and continued with her lesson. Fortunately for the readers of HowStuffWorks.com and for the listeners of the "Stuff Mom Never Told You" podcast, Molly has learned over the years that physical harm is not a good way to provide information. A graduate of Emory University, where she majored in creative writing and political science, Molly spends her spare time seeking out good books, live music and people who will cook for her.
Most Recent: Molly Edmonds Postings
How to Take a Road Trip, Abraham Lincoln-Style
by Molly Edmonds | February 9, 2010
The countdown is on to the most important day in February — no, not Valentine’s Day. For me, the best day of the month is February 12, which is Abraham Lincoln’s birthday. Keep your candy hearts and your romantic dinners; give me a Lincoln biography and a top hat. To people in the U.S. who would abandon the penny, I say that you better not do so without putting Lincoln on another coin first.
How to Make Your Super Bowl Party, Well, Super.
by Molly Edmonds | February 3, 2010
Look, I will admit it: I know absolutely nothing about football. I don’t know Peyton Manning from Eli Manning, and I only know who Tom Brady is because of the famous women he has babies with. But nevertheless, I am psyched for Sunday’s Super Bowl between the Colts and the Saints. Even though I had to look up just now who was playing, the Super Bowl will be fun. Why? Because of Super Bowl parties.
This morning, I was checking in with editor Katie Lambert, of Stuff You Missed in History Class fame, and she told me that she had to de-ice her car with an old CD because she lacked a scraper. She said some other things too, but I wasn’t listening because my mind was too busy imagining what other things could be done with old CD’s. The question occupied my mind that I had no choice but to write this blog about the issue.
Sometimes, when I can’t get to sleep, I play the blame game. I make lists of all the reasons why I’m not yet asleep, be it that Diet Coke I had late in the afternoon or the window blinds that don’t block all the light coming into my room. Lately, I’ve been blaming my pillows. I just can’t get comfortable!
Whenever I shop for new pillows, however, I get very confused.
Cristen and I have been covering tons of interesting topics for the Stuff Mom Never Told You podcast recently — in the last few weeks, we’ve taken on gender differences in infidelity, women in baseball and the importance of birth order on personality (or lack thereof). But today I thought I’d give you a sneak peek at a podcast that’s not up on iTunes yet that happens to be one my new favorites. The topic? Whether or not you should eat a baby’s placenta.
Tomorrow, the 22nd, marks the third week of 2010. So how are those resolutions coming? Whether you vowed to exercise every day or eat more vegetables, you’d think it would be a habit by now — after all, conventional wisdom holds that doing something consistently for three weeks produces an unshakable habit. But I’m willing to bet that a few of you out there didn’t make the three week mark. What gives?
I used to grind my teeth something fierce; once, when my mother came to visit me, she said it sounded like I was chewing rocks. Delightful, huh? And apparently I’m not the only one — in October of last year, the New York Times ran a story about how dentists are seeing more and more cases of tooth grinding thanks to economic stress. The costs of bruxism, or tooth grinding, can add up in the long run, though, as grinding can wear down enamel, break teeth, affect your bite and mess with your muscles.
How to Remove Price Tags and Soften Your Elbows at the Same Time
by Molly Edmonds | January 14, 2010
Over the holidays, I was wrapping Christmas presents with my mother. I was trying to remove a price tag from an item that I’d bought for my brother, but it wouldn’t budge without removing some of the paint. “Drat!” I said, though in actuality I probably used a word stronger than “drat,” which is what caused my mother to look up and see what I was doing. “Just put some mayonnaise on it,” she said.
Today on the blog, I’d like to talk to the tweens and teens out there. Kids, back when I was your age, there was a series of books that rocked everyone’s world and that series was called “The Baby-Sitter’s Club.” And in December 2009, the world got a collective Christmas present when the New York Times reported that Scholastic would be reissuing some of the books. To girls of a certain age, this is literary catnip.
I hate to sound whiny, but it is cold here in Atlanta. It might even snow! I know that it snows lots of places, but look, this city is known as Hotlanta. Chances are, if you live here, you dislike the cold.
One of my low temperature coping mechanisms has been to meditate on things that make me feel warm, like Snuggies and hot chocolate and Don Draper from “Mad Men.” Also on the list: hot tubs.
Recent Postings by Category
BrainStuff
- Interesting Reading #414 – The tiniest computer, hearts really can break, family pays $5,000 per year for connections, New font saves ink and much more…
- Public Service Announcement – Soft drinks nearly double your chances of pancreatic cancer
- Amazing – Going inside the Giant Crystal Cave
FanStuff
- What’s art — and what’s groundbreaking — in video games?
- Ursula K. Le Guin vs. Google Books: Round Two
- “Lost,” “Fringe” and That Whole Alternate Universe Thing
How-to Stuff
- How to Take a Road Trip, Abraham Lincoln-Style
- How to Explain Love in the Least Romantic Way Possible
- How to Quiet a Barking Dog
ScienceStuff
- Space Music Vol. 8: Sun Ra and Afrofuturism
- Stuff from the Science Lab Roundup: Space Eats and Grow Houses
- Why does time fly as you get older?
Stuff You Should Know
The Coolest Stuff on the Planet
High Speed Stuff
- The Toyota Recall: Where can you get the latest information?
- What is Toyota doing to fix its gas pedal problem?
- High Speed Stuff Wrap-up: Automotive Pet Peeves and Polar Vehicles
Keep Asking
- How does an airbrush work?
- Is the Internet free? If you want to make a website, will it cost you to put it online?
- If you look at a piece of glass from an angle, why does it have a bluish or green tint?
Stuff You Missed in History Class
- Last Week in History Podcasts: Battle Horses and Black Moses
- The Wonderful Adventures of the Nurse We Forgot
- Black History Month on HowStuffWorks
