MINNEAPOLIS -- On a recent Sunday morning, nearly 50 people in long pants and sun hats, some toting loppers, gathered beside the Mississippi River.

It was the second meeting of the Minneapolis Buckthorn Removal Singles Club, a group of mostly 20-and-30-somethings circling up for an icebreaker.

Attendees shared their dating preferences and ...Read more

The Garden Guy is dedicating this column to a fuchsia; so many of you are thinking this is a sure sign of the apocalypse. Wait ... this new fuchsia is rocking with August at the door.

The fuchsia I am talking about is Sun Pendants Hot Pink and will make its debut in 2027. My first blooms showed in April and have steadily increased in size and ...Read more

Dear Anna,

I’ve (19M) been with my girlfriend (18F) for just under four months, and things have gotten serious enough that we’re starting to talk about having sex for the first time. She’s never had sex before, and early in our relationship she told me she’d always imagined sharing that part of herself with only one person. She says if ...Read more

PHILADELPHIA -- Like many American suburbs, Abington, Pennsylvania, accidentally spent centuries building a goose paradise. Now, the feds will help the township evict the waterfowl from their ideal habitat.

Abington Township approved a contract with the U.S. Department of Agriculture on July 9 for Canada goose abatement in Alverthorpe Park, ...Read more

I have a new client, Sandy. She lives in San Francisco, she’s in her mid-60s, and she hasn’t dated in over 30 years, since before she was with her late husband. Dating has changed a lot since then.

She and I had a few pep talks about first dates — what to wear, where to meet, who should pay, and how to end a date depending on how it goes...Read more

CHICAGO — Growing up, Tanner Dane and his best-friends-turned-bandmates used to spend hours and hours jamming in his Elgin, Illinois, attic. Like any aspiring musicians, they started with covers. But it didn’t take long to cultivate their own sound: a bluesy, alternative rock, soul-inspired sort of mix.

Soon enough, they were self-producing...Read more

Q. My child’s mother recently moved in with her boyfriend, who has full custody of his three boys. Last time I picked up our son from his mother’s, I noticed suspicious bruises on his thighs and back. This is new. I don’t know if this is the result of discipline, which I absolutely do not agree with, or rough play, which is also ...Read more

When my husband was asked if he would help teach twin granddaughters how to parallel park, he immediately yelled, “Yes!” If there was a parallel parking competition, my husband could take first place — unless our son entered the competition, then he’d take first place.

Our son lived in Chicago for 10 years and none of his apartment ...Read more

Dear Kid Whisperer,

How do you handle an almost 4-year-old who wants to control everything? He had a friend over and I was outside with the friend’s parents. It started to rain, so we said we were going inside, and my son stood in front of the door with his arms stretched and said, “No we aren’t!” When we got inside, he took toys from ...Read more

LOS ANGELES -- It was after the death of her son, Laith, that Esme Saleh decided to become a folk artist.

She had always been creative, experimenting with watercolors and learning to sew and embroider at a young age.

"I had a creative inkling," she said, "but I never pursued it."

Everything changed on Aug. 17, 2013.

When Saleh was nine ...Read more

If Sports Illustrated ever does a male version of its famous swimsuit issue, I could be on the cover for two very good reasons:

1) I just got a stylish new swimsuit, which impressed a lifeguard at the pool where I took my granddaughters for a swim.

2) It’s not a Speedo.

You can add my wife and our younger daughter to the other 8 billion ...Read more

CHICAGO — In a small room in a museum downtown, a medium-size leather suitcase sits on the floor.

It’s empty now, but nearly 50 years ago — as it crossed the Pacific Ocean from the Philippines to Chicago — it held textbooks, clothes, a prayer book and hopes for the future as a nurse in Illinois.

“Whenever I look at that, it comes ...Read more

It was a Thursday afternoon in early July, and Carolyn Pinta was home alone when she heard a knock on the door. She hesitated before she answered, unsure about her unexpected guest’s intentions.

The intentions, it turns out, were lovely.

Standing at Pinta’s front door was Katie Benn, an air defense officer in the U.S. Army. Benn was ...Read more

No plant has been more enjoyable in The Garden Guy’s trials than the Forged in Fire heliopsis or false sunflower. There have been a lot of varieties in recent years, but I am going to have to put this one on the must-have list.

Botanically speaking it is "Heliopsis helioanthoides," native to the United States. Despite being native to 42 ...Read more

LOS ANGELES — Many high schoolers are finding out that majors are not just for college students.

Linked Learning Alliance, a California nonprofit that partners with school districts to improve education, offers over 600 "pathways" — similar to a college major, but targeted to high school — to over 330,000 students in more than 80 school ...Read more

Another day, another set of dating questions.

Question: What dating app seems to have the best luck in finding a partner?

Answer: You may not love my answer, but it's not about luck or "finding" someone. It's about being proactive and using the apps efficiently. You can be successful, or unsuccessful, on any app depending on how thoughtfully ...Read more

Dear Anna,

I’ve been happily married for 12 years, and my husband and I have been poly for eight of them. Overall, it’s been a really positive part of our relationship. We’ve had our trials, of course, but we communicate much better than we once did, we both date other people occasionally, and I genuinely experience compersion much of the...Read more

I was recently, and mercifully, on vacation.

The hotel pool was packed with people, many of whom had their children of all ages in the pool with them. Teenagers threw footballs, toddlers were swimming with floaties, and kids were swimming and jumping into the pool

I was the only parent in the pool wrestling with his kid.

My daughter and I ...Read more

Q. My ex is a terrible co-parent. When we divorced, I remarried soon afterward, but I have stayed open to co-parenting with their mother. We had to move an hour away and so my time with the kids had to change. I now have most weekends, but my relationship with the kids has changed. They are very attached to their mother and she will not do ...Read more

My philosophy concerning a garden is the same as my philosophy toward dessert — there’s always room for a little more.

It didn’t take long this spring before I realized I was sowing too many seeds in too little space. Then a light bulb flashed and I thought, “Why not go vertical?” I could just coax everything to latch onto big swaths ...Read more