With the holiday season upon us, many of us will indulge in sweet treats at the office and at home, unless you are someone who does not care much for sweets, a concept that may surprise some of us candy lovers! It turns out our sweet tooth has to do with two genetic variants of a hormone known as FGF21. Published research from [...]
One of my favorite ways to unwind after work or on the weekend is by playing video games. Here are some of our staff’s favorite games to play! Don jokes that Adobe InDesign is his favorite “game” because he’s so good at it. But as far as console games go, he prefers to stick to Forza and Rock Band—racing and rocking! Melina enjoys scary games [...]
I think one of the surest ways to find yourself in a disagreement with someone is by telling them a film adaptation is better than the original book. Of course, it is all a matter of personal opinion, but what films make that unpopular opinion true? Here are some films I feel succeeded the books. Girl, Interrupted: The book lacked so much detail that [...]
This past August, an art exhibit took place in New York City. This doesn’t seem too unusual, considering that NYC is a great place for art. What made this exhibit so special was that it wasn’t for humans—it was for dogs. This unique idea formed when art critic and dog owner Jessica Dawson took her dog, Rocky, for walks through art galleries. Dawson believed [...]
Halloween is over, and with it, the sense of mystery and spookiness, but that doesn’t mean we can’t submerge ourselves in a good mystery or crime book! Here are what some of us at PSG have to say about our favorite books and authors when we’re seeking suspense. Nora loves reading mystery novels from classic authors Agatha Christie and Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, as [...]
Just kidding . . . it’s probably not best to make a speech on an empty stomach. But don’t worry, if you’re one of many people with glossophobia, the fear of public speaking, there are some tips and tricks to calm the feeling of nervousness—and, in some cases, nausea—before publicly speaking. This Harper’s Bazaar article gives some great advice to get over the fear. Some [...]
A few weeks ago, I got to meet my favorite author—Patrick Rothfuss. He was doing a book tour to celebrate the release of the tenth anniversary edition of his fantasy novel The Name of the Wind, and made a stop at Brookline Booksmith to do a Q&A session in the store’s basement and a signing upstairs afterwards. I wasn’t able to secure a ticket for [...]
In my recently found passion for pre-Colombian cultures, I went to visit Chichén Itzá, a world famous site of Mayan ruins in Yucatán, Mexico. The site hosts one of the largest surviving stone courts where the Maya once competed in a ball game sport called Pok-A-Tok, derived from the Yucatec Mayan word pokolpok. The court at Chichén Itzá measures 551 feet long and 230 [...]
Imagine randomly hitting the keys on your computer, creating nonsense words as you type. I like to imagine that is how Lorem Ipsum—the filler text that often comes standard with many digital publishing programs—started. However, it actually started with a printer from the 1500s who scrambled up one of Cicero's works, which may be why it’s often mistaken for Latin. To my surprise, though, [...]
Fall is a great time to curl up with a good book, and it’s no surprise that we love to read at PSG! This week we asked our staff about nonfiction. Here are some of our favorite titles: Nora loves In Cold Blood by Truman Capote. The first nonfiction book that she read and loved, Nora says that the story was enveloping and chilling [...]