Since I am in the holiday spirit (and, having just consumed a mug of hot toddy, a glass of eggnog and a nip of cheer, the holiday spirits are in me), I have decided to follow in that great tradition of boring everyone silly by writing a Christmas letter.

That is why I am pleased as punch (which I also drank) to present the following chronicle ...Read more

No one quite knew what to do with Casidy Ludwig when she walked into court this summer for her first appearance as one of Colorado’s newly minted licensed legal paraprofessionals.

She pulled the judge and opposing counsel aside for a primer: She’d be representing her client in a limited capacity, making objections and argument, but not ...Read more

“Seniors should not pay tax on Social Security,” President-elect Donald Trump said on social media during his campaign in July.

Currently, some people who collect Social Security owe income tax on a portion of their benefits. Trump’s plans to eliminate taxes on Social Security benefits sparked much discussion, and some strong opposition. ...Read more

LOS ANGELES — My first meeting with Aescape, the AI-powered massage robot, was benign enough — if a bit eerie. As if HAL had gotten a job in the Valley. I stepped into the austere spa room at Pause, a wellness center in Studio City, and a sturdy massage table commanded the space. It was deep-sea blue and plush, glowing from LED lights that ...Read more

When Jessica Bazzarre Byerly was 8 years old, her parents piled her and her two younger sisters into the family station wagon and set out for a Christmas tree farm in Havana, Illinois (population 2,827), where Byerly’s dad used to go as a kid.

“My parents both thought that cutting down your own Christmas tree was something they wanted their...Read more

CHICAGO — As the boat zipped down the Chicago River on a nippy November morning, Sammie Clark stood up and pointed at a creature swimming in the water, its brown fur slick and its head bobbing just above the surface. It kept close to the edge, a sheet metal wall where the riverbank used to be.

“That’s either a muskrat or a beaver,” she ...Read more

LOS ANGELES — "Code Green" has the trappings of a modern escape room.

We enter what we are told is a hidden bunker-turned-research lab. It's dark, but there are clearly challenges that surround us: patterns in the walls, a cork board filled with notes and images connected by string and, before us on what appears to be a concrete table, a ...Read more

When Jessica Bazzarre Byerly was 8 years old, her parents piled her and her two younger sisters into the family station wagon and set out for a Christmas tree farm in Havana, Illinois (population 2,827), where Byerly’s dad used to go as a kid.

“My parents both thought that cutting down your own Christmas tree was something they wanted their...Read more

Dear Anna,

My partner and I broke up in late April but we had a situationship over the summer. I’m a sophomore in college and I’m excited to get back out there. There’s one problem, I have no clue what I’m doing. I’ve only recently started to learn about sexual guilt and shame because I never focused too much on it while in my ...Read more

As we head into December, we start to glance to the future, to the award-winning flowers for 2025. This is always a terrific choice for your garden dollar, whether you are looking toward the landscape, porch, patio or deck. One such award winner is Supertunia Mini Vista Yellow, Proven Winners 2025 Annual of the Year.

The Mini Vista petunias ...Read more

The cost of infant care varies drastically across the U.S. – from about $8,000 a year in some states to as high as $25,000 in others.

According to Bankrate’s Cost of Infant Care Study, parents pay an average of $14,070 a year to put one infant child in full-time daycare. And overall child care costs are $11,582 on average per year, ...Read more

At 85 years old, Calvin White didn’t let his age slow him down while riding his horse speedily in between six tall, staked poles during the pole-bending competition at the Brown Family Ranch’s annual rodeo this fall in Gary, Indiana. In this competition, the rider with the fastest time wins, and White placed third.

Of the many Black men and...Read more

Buying a home doesn’t deliver the instant gratification you’re accustomed to in today’s e-commerce world. There’s no “Buy Now” button for real estate — the process requires a number of steps and a lot of patience.

And even after you find the perfect place, you’ll still need to do more waiting: The average time to buy a house, ...Read more

ATLANTA -- During the Halloween-themed Boo at the Zoo Atlanta festivities in late October, kids played Panda Plinko for prizes and gleefully posed with a person dressed as a panda. The Panda Pagoda gift shop sold stacks of stuffed pandas for $25.

But actual giant pandas were no longer there. Lun Lun and Yang Yang had returned to China two weeks...Read more

“How can I write in my online dating profile to attract the type of person I’m looking for?”

This is a question I get, in some form or another, from clients almost daily. In their mind, they have a target partner. Let’s say this “target” is a man in his 60s, well-educated, with grown children, and lives in Philadelphia. Or maybe ...Read more

Ellen O'Brian hadn't bought a candy-filled advent calendar in years, but when she saw the festive cardboard box with little numbered panels in her local natural foods store, she couldn't resist.

"It's put out by a chocolate maker called Divine, and it's dark chocolate for the dark time of the year," said O'Brian, founder of the Center for ...Read more

Q.My husband recently died. We were married for almost 50 years. He was married prior to our life together and he always told me they divorced because she did not want children. We went on to have three wonderful daughters. His passing was expected, but a terrible blow. I recently received a letter from the funeral home saying that his ex-wife ...Read more

Dear Kid Whisperer,

During COVID, you put out a video called Real-World Workshop on YouTube that showed parents how to manage chores and homework/virtual work at home. It worked really well for my three kids for years. Power struggles about work were gone just like you promised. BUT… now it doesn’t work at all for my middle and youngest (12...Read more

CHICAGO — With a wave of her bangled brown fingertips to the melody of flutes and chimes, artist, theologian and academic Tricia Hersey enchanted a crowd into a dreamlike state of rest at Semicolon Books on North Michigan Avenue in Chicago.

“The systems can’t have you,” Hersey said into the microphone, reading mantras while leading the ...Read more

I had an identity crisis yesterday. It was the fourth one this week. Online accounts keep questioning if it's really me.

I have the same thought a lot of mornings when I look in the mirror.

The bank insisted I confirm my identity before I could access our account -- all because I made one teeny tiny typo entering the passcode. Flustered and in...Read more