This column is the latest in a series on parenting children in the final years of high school, "Emptying the Nest."

____

After weeks of preparing myself for the emotions of "the last first day," the start of my youngest child's senior year was distinctly anticlimactic.

I did make her a hot breakfast, over which she received my bittersweet ...Read more

PHILADELPHIA — When you see Lisa DePaulo's byline, you don't think of the Cupid beat. In her career writing for publications like GQ, Vanity Fair, and New York and Philadelphia magazines, this tough cookie's element has had more to do with thugs and scoundrels who whack their girlfriends than nice guys looking for one.

But when her neighbor ...Read more

LOS ANGELES -- Madigan Traversi’s world changed in the fall of 2017, but the forces responsible for her transformation had been brewing for a long time.

Late at night on Oct. 8, her family received a robocall about an evacuation warning — not an order — as more than a dozen wildfires tore through eight Northern California counties at once...Read more

Dear Kid Whisperer,

I need some advice in dealing with a first-grade student who never listens to me. I tell him to not blurt out; he blurts out more. I tell him not to grab other kids while he’s in line; he does it more. I have tried everything. Nothing works. I’ve even had the nurse check his hearing. She says it’s fine. His grandma ...Read more

As much as I appreciate receiving a daily barrage of email pitches for fat removers, teeth aligners, night vision binoculars and other amazing products I can’t possibly live without, I subscribe to the theory that I can’t unsubscribe from stuff to which I never subscribed.

That’s the quandary I can’t seem to get out of even with a 20-...Read more

We’re still asking people with COVID to jump through far too many hoops to get their hands on Pfizer Inc.’s Paxlovid.

I experienced the barriers first-hand this month after my mother texted to say that this summer’s COVID wave had finally caught up with her. My first thought was to make sure she quickly started taking the antiviral. You�...Read more

First of all, immigrants aren’t eating people’s pets in Ohio.

It’s the sort of thing that should go without saying. The sort of thing that makes you wince a little when you say it (or type it) because it breathes fresh oxygen into a lie that dehumanizes us and desensitizes us and should’ve been starved of air long before it entered the ...Read more

BOISE, Idaho — Two archery hunters in East Idaho shot and killed an adult male grizzly bear last Sunday after the animal knocked one of the men down and bit him.

The men were hunting elk on the Caribou-Targhee National Forest near Island Park when they had a “surprise encounter” with the bear, according to a news release from the Idaho ...Read more

PHILADELPHIA — Keyna Drinks was doing whatever she could in 2011 to draw attention to her husband's murder.

She called on her local state representative, who helped organize a vigil and news conference.

She phoned the police constantly.

In the months-turned-years with no answers, she never let up. She papered the North Philadelphia ...Read more

There is a grand lady who has been gracing my garden the past couple of years. In fact I would say she is definitely Miss America. You know The Garden Guy is having fun, as I am talking about Shadowland Miss America hosta.

The past two summers have to go down as a hosta survivability challenge of sorts. If the hostas are not crying uncle The ...Read more

MIAMI -- Mental health is not easy for anyone to discuss openly. But, in some religious communities, there is an added stigma that may hinder an open dialogue — and that’s particularly true in the Islamic faith.

The South Florida Muslim Federation (SoFlo Muslims), an umbrella organization representing over 40 mosques and Islamic ...Read more

KANSAS CITY, Mo. -- In 2021, Amanda Burrows had an answer to a giant Confederate flag that was erected along a popular route to the Lake of the Ozarks: a billboard with the anti-racist message, “EQUALITY BIGGER THAN HATE.”

She raised money through GoFundMe to lease the billboard so visitors would not leave with the impression that the area...Read more

These days, there's no surer way to start a fight than to talk politics with someone who disagrees with you. And with election day drawing near, political conversations are increasingly difficult to avoid.

You could muddle your way through the next two months and hope for the best. Or you could take Tania Israel's advice and embrace the ...Read more

SAN JOSE, Calif. — Everyone has that one pet in life who they fall in love with at first sight — or first scratch.

For San Francisco resident Wyatt Boumedine, that was Zine, his white cat with a raccoon-like tail who would constantly growl, claw — and probably curse, if he could speak — at his owner. But Boumedine adored him. When Zine ...Read more

Dear Anna,

I'm 26 (F), and my boyfriend (28) and I have been together for almost three years. We moved in together six months ago, and ever since I’ve noticed a pretty big change in our sex life. Before moving in, we used to have sex several times a week, but now it’s once a week, or maybe twice if it’s, like, a special occasion. I didn�...Read more

MIAMI -- Corner Coffee is not your typical coffee shop.

All the the usual suspects are offered: espresso, cold brews, pastries. But the distinct interior design offers some clues as to what is also on the menu: A ceiling mobile made of religious stained glass hangs over a seating area. A bronze sculpture of a life-size Homeless Jesus sleeping ...Read more

Despite the planet’s growing plastic pollution crisis, petroleum-based polymers have become an integral part of modern life. They make cars and airplanes lighter and more energy efficient. They constitute a core material of modern medicine by helping to keep equipment sterile, deliver medicines and build prosthetics, among many other things. ...Read more

I got a text recently from a 40-year-old male client who I’ve been working with on and off over the last few years. It said this: “I’ve been anxious to re-start dating. I just want this process to be done.”

I answered, “When you say that you want the process to be ‘done,’ what do you mean?”

Every week, at least three clients ...Read more

Dear Kid Whisperer,

As a retired elementary school teacher, I enjoy reading your column in the newspaper every weekend. I have noticed a common theme in your responses: Don’t punish students (for example by taking away their recess time) for exhibiting behaviors that are undesirable or attention seeking, but rather suggest replacement ...Read more

ATLANTA -- When my kids were young, I kept a stack of parenting books to consult on teething, toddler tantrums and bedtime routines. More often, however, I took my child-rearing questions to parents I met on the playground or in the neighborhood.

My own mother was no help. She had four children in proximity and always told me our early ...Read more