Jane Brendlinger

My stomach and I aren’t always on the best terms. Over the years, we’ve bickered a lot. Sometimes she’s like, “Dude, why do you keep putting jelly beans inside of me? I can’t do anything with this sh*t.” Me: “Bwahaha!” [keeps eating jelly beans].…

Confidence: a slippery fish, a flaky, fair-weather friend, and as soon as things get a little rough it’s, “Sayonara, I didn’t sign up for all of these stupid problems,” and Confidence is out the door. Confidence most recently slipped through my…

One night in August, something small was pricking at my ankles. I reached down to scratch, and found that constellations of small raised bumps had surfaced overnight. Another quick sting, and a fleck of black pepper jumped from my ankle into the…

When I first moved to New York City, I was fascinated by the intersecting subway lines, the striking difference between the percussive rhythm of Chinatown, and the calm in the middle of a field of Prospect Park. I loved the fact that nothing ever…

Editor's Note: This napping experiment was done in good fun, but what's not funny is that some people really don't have a private place to sleep — and that's no joke to us. Do your part to fight homelessness in New York City or in your town. Because…

January 2015 was 31 days, and I know because I was been counting them down, one by one. Two weeks left, then one, then none. Finally, after a dark and hopeless 4.43 weeks, I hold a drink in my hand. Yes, that's right: I tried Dry January. Before…

I'm not a religious person, but sometimes I wish I were. Just to have that feeling of being watched over, of knowing that some forces other than reigning chaos and Google analytics are determining my life's course. Isn't there something else I can…

Last fall, a dear friend of mine approached me to ask for an unusual favor. “I’m looking to get a new tattoo,” she said, “and I want you to design it.” I was both flattered and confused. You see, I’m not a professional artist, and not even an…

For decades, throughout the halls of American colleges everywhere, men and women have been joining forces in the name of one absurd and futile pursuit: to create facsimiles of popular songs by pretending to be instruments. The word “a cappella” did…