The Perfect Lie
My name is Regina, and I’m a recovering perfection addict. What’s funny is that I willingly—and ironically—cover the mistakes and failures of others. But when it comes to the standards I set for myself, I can be ruthless.
perfect harmony
Amy Chua’s 7-year-old daughter Lulu was struggling to master a difficult piece of classical piano music. When she gave up, her mother ordered her back to the piano, threatening to dispose of the little girl’s dolls’ house if the piece wasn’t perfect by the next day. The threats continued: no lunch, dinner, or holiday presents—and no birthday parties for several…
buried alive
Medical students in Taiwan are being buried alive. This practice, which sounds like it could lead to a serious shortage of Taiwanese doctors in a few years, doesn’t actually lead to death. The docs-in- training at Rende Medical College are simply placed in a sealed coffin for a period of 10 minutes. Why? To give them insights into death and to…
batting 1.000
Baseball determines a player’s batting average by dividing his total number of hits by the number of times he’s batted. If a player hits the ball every time he bats, he’s batting 1.000 (or one thousand). For as long as baseball has been around, no player has ever batted 1.000. And just as no baseball player has ever achieved batting perfection,…
