Why Charlie Chaplin slipped on banana peels (Atlas Obscura)
by Alex Mayyasi
Why do so many old movies and cartoons feature people slipping on banana peels? It turns out it was a real danger in late-nineteenth-century New York, when bananas started being sold as a convenient on-the-go food. That’s because the sidewalks of the city were absolutely covered in garbage.

The frustrating mystery of chronic Lyme (The Cut)
by Molly Fischer
There is no generally accepted chronic Lyme disease diagnosis. That often leads doctors to patronize people suffering from symptoms that have devastating effects on their lives. It also creates an opening for fraudulent medical professionals who charge huge bills for remedies that make people feel worse.

If the president does it, can it be illegal? (Vox)
by Li Zhou
In his recent Congressional testimony, Robert Mueller indicated that he might have charged the president with a crime if it weren’t for a longstanding Justice Department policy against doing just that. Legal experts explain just how much immunity from prosecution sitting presidents have.

The price of a full head of hair (The Atlantic)
by James Hamblin
Despite all the advertisements for baldness cures, actually getting people’s hair to regrow is a hugely complicated undertaking. A product that really does it may now be around the corner. Given its cost, however, it could turn avoiding hair loss into a class marker.

What is “natural” parenting? (Aeon)
by Olga Mecking
To many parents of young kids, there’s an appeal to raising them in a “natural” way, which we often interpret as following the attachment styles of our pre-agricultural ancestors. But there are as many styles of hunter-gatherer parenting as there are tribes.

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