Category: Public Service Announcement
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When is rape not rape? When it includes BDSM apparently
Unless you’ve been living in a cave over the past few years, you’ve undoubtedly heard of the movie 50 Shades of Grey based on the series of books of the same name. In case you haven’t, it’s a story of a young woman who is seduced by an older, grotesquely wealthy man who is very…
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Text spam: The cray-cray is strong
Starting tonight at 5:22 p.m. and ending at 7:32 p.m., when I blocked the phone number, I received 86 text spam messages from 312-507-1045. After the first 15 messages, I googled the number and came across this tweet: That number again is 1-312-507-1045 it is the babble of an insane illiterate nut job! — tom…
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Winter Driving 101 (or how to drive in Chicago without being a jackass)
The dawn of the New Year has brought Winter to Chicago and with it snow, ice, sleet, cold, and winter driving. Now ideally, no one would leave their home from now until June (just in time for my birthday), but the reality is that sometimes, we have to leave the house to run crazy errands…
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Rape allegations against Bill Cosby have changed his legacy from the one we want to the one we need
A friend of mine posted on Facebook about a conversation she had with her daughter this morning that began with her daughter asking, “Is Bill Cosby a rapist?” This question from her tween, made my friend realize that she could no longer separate Bill Cosby the man, who is accused of sexually abusing at least…
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What Joan Rivers taught us about death and dying
Unless you just arrived here via time travel from the 1980s and in a DeLorean, and if you did, let’s talk ASAP, you know that pioneering comic Joan Rivers died last week. If you did arrive here via time travel, I’m sorry for the spoiler. But seriously, call me ASAP. I want to go back.…
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Call me Jessica
My name is Jessica. More specifically, my name is Jessica Lynn Gardner. I was given my first name in memory of my late grandfather, Jesse. We never met because he died on my mom’s 13th birthday. Lynn, my middle name, is the first name of my mom’s best friend from college. They were roommates for…
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Mental Health Awareness Month Celebrated by ChicagoNow
May was Mental Health Awareness Month and the incredible bloggers of ChicagoNow shared their incredibly personal stories and expertise with more than 30 posts on the topic. Most of the bloggers who wrote are not mental health professionals, but there is at least one Licensed Clinical Professional Counselor, Nicole Knepper, writer of Moms Who Drink…
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Does Facebook condone child pornography?
Earlier tonight a fellow ChicagoNow blogger and friend of mine linked a video on Facebook and commented “(For the second time today) Jesus take the wheel.” I looked at the screen shot of the video and saw two girls dancing. Knowing my friend, I figured the video would be some sort of spoof or parody…
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Mental Health Awareness Month: Keep talking to stamp out stigma
May is Mental Health Awareness Month and it ends in just a couple of hours. Although Mental Health Awareness Month is over, mental illness never ends. There are always people who are suffering or who have family or friends who are suffering. The National Alliance on Mental Illness (NAMI) reports that 1 in 4 people…
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End mental illness stigma, save lives
Three things happened on Friday that I can’t get out of my head. On the surface, they’re unrelated. But in my head, they’re intricately woven and the direct result of what happens when we continue to stigmatize mental illness, cut mental health services, and look the other way when people are desperately struggling. First, I…
Jessica L Gardner 