Lifestyle

Dear Hank, I've been watching vlogbrothers for years, and during my college days your Crash Course videos have helped me through many of my science classes. Your brother John is a great author -- I read and watched The Fault in Our Stars. I think it is great that both of you are doing so much to create meaningful discussions around the world and educate others about a variety of topics. During one of your biology videos, when you went over the process of digestion, you mentioned that amino acids are the building blocks of protein. You said that we can get these amino acids from plants, or we can eat animals and our body will then have to break that back down into amino acids before building usable proteins for us. Most teachers and textbook overlook this step in the process. You...

Dear Boss, You were magnificent the other night – performing with U2 for World AIDS Day – and further establishing yourself as the ultimate "guest" lead singer/band leader. And congratulations on another productive and fulfilling year. You turned 65 and kept your foot on the gas. After wrapping up another worldwide tour with the E Street Band in May, you released – an illustrated book (Outlaw Pete), a short film in which you directed and acted (Hunter of Invisible Game), a re-mastered box set spanning your first 7 albums, more official live downloads, and made your acting debut in a TV series (Lilihammer). You also continued your unwavering support for Veterans with honorable performances at Stand-Up for Heroes and The Concert for Valor. And to close out last month, you lent your...

Dear Governor Christie, I write to you today to implore you to step down as governor of the great state of New Jersey. I am willing to allow for the possibility that you knew nothing of the politically vengeful closure of lanes on the George Washington Bridge. Perhaps your fragile screen of plausible deniability, while stretching credulity, does not entirely rise beyond some legal bar of reasonable doubt. Perhaps, as you have claimed, your team really did keep you in the dark as to what they were conspiring to do on your behalf. We do not know because all we have at this point is your unequivocal denial of any knowledge of the conspiracy, which seems like a fallback position coming so fast on the heels of a similarly unequivocal denial of any involvement on the part of your team and...

Dear Henry, This letter is a response to your article on LA Weekly called "Fuck Suicide" (and your subsequent apology). This is my seventh attempt to write this letter. The previous six were, honestly, just bad. The first one played pretty heavily on how long I've been a fan. The second talked about how your music, books and spoken word brought me a comfort for being an alien in society when I was a teenager. The third, fourth and fifth all tried to establish just how strange an occurrence it is to all of my friends that I write a hero of mine a letter trying to educate him on a perspective he lacks. The sixth, while bad, was actually a decent take. It did a fine job of establishing just how long I've been involved with your work, how influential you were to me, how much of my...