Tuesday is 4/20, which is just a date for many, but for the growing and increasingly mainstreamed cannabis culture, is something akin to a national holiday.

Born of teenage stoner lore, 4:20 p.m. was allegedly the weekly meeting time for a group of five California high school students nicknamed the Waldos, who in 1971 would gather to smoke pot ...Read more

Q. My partner and I combined families two years ago. Both of us have kids, and we have slowly gotten them on similar schedules so we have some private time together. Then COVID-19 hit and all this togetherness has made things terrible between us. Last night an argument spiraled out of control and she slapped me across the face. Luckily the kids ...Read more

LOS ANGELES – Los Angeles County residents rate education among the worst of several factors affecting their quality of life, displaying one of the biggest drops in recent years among parents of children in public schools, according to a UCLA survey.

More than three-quarters of parents in the county with children ages 5 to 18 believe their ...Read more

One of the more unfortunate consequences of relying on advice from mental health “experts” concerning parenting matters has been a one-dimensional understanding of child discipline.

Because of the infiltration of psychological theory into child rearing, most parents conceive of discipline as being all about correcting behavior.

Indeed, a...Read more

Seeds for conflict are being sown in the U.K. over whether to mow one's lawn or let it become a small patch of wilderness. It's a new twist on an old drama. Call it Lawn Order.

More simply put, it is Grass Warfare. Pro-wilding advocates are squaring off against pro-manicured lawn advocates.

One article on the turf wars featured a photograph of...Read more

CHICAGO – It was flattering to be called a hero. At the Super Bowl. On hand-drawn signs. In campaign speeches. During beer commercials.

“It was nice,” said Greg Reilly, a registered nurse at Rush University Medical Center in Chicago. “You’re being recognized for all the hard work. It’s nice to have that spotlight on your profession....Read more

The way some people view my hesitance about the COVID vaccines: I am an anti-American anti-vaxxer.

The way I view it: I am a discerning consumer, especially when it comes to what I put in my body.

The way some people view my waiting for the one-shot Johnson and Johnson: I should take the first vaccination that becomes available.

The way I ...Read more

LOS ANGELES – The word came in the morning, as Grace Cruz and her children gathered at the family home in Boyle Heights on Christmas Eve, 1943.

Her oldest son, Jacob, was dead.

A telegram from the United States Marines said the 18-year-old private was killed in action but divulged little else. The ongoing Pacific campaign meant Jacob would ...Read more

The problem with wearing a mask — aside from the lamentable fact that you can’t breathe, talk or make funny faces — is no one can see you smile.

Not that there has been much to smile about over the past year. The pandemic has forced everyone to wear a mask, the result being that I couldn’t see people smile at my frustrating inability to...Read more

After the mass murder of spa employees in Atlanta last month and amid a surge in anti-Asian hate across the country, Americans of Asian descent banded together in protest and grief.

Among them were some of the tens of thousands of Americans adopted from China, South Korea and other Asian countries. Raised in many cases by white parents in ...Read more

Many of us remember our grandmother’s home cooking. Or we can recall great dishes prepared by an aunt or a local chef. We feel warm and fuzzy just thinking about those experiences.

Food creates good memories, opportunities to bond in social groups and a nice way to show we care about other people.

“As a child, my dad took us to his great-...Read more

How will you tell everyone you've gotten vaccinated?

"I won't," you say. "I am a private citizen who does not spray every detail of his life on social media for the meaningless approval of strangers. I don't take pictures of my dinner and post them on Instagram, any more than my great-grandmother would have commissioned an oil painting of her ...Read more

BALTIMORE – It’s 2 1/2 hours before sunset, a drizzle is falling under gloomy skies, and the cars are lined up by the dozen in the parking lot of the Islamic Society of Baltimore.

Drivers and passengers, many wearing headscarves or skullcaps, wait in minivans, luxury sedans and old beaters for a signal to move forward. On reaching the ...Read more

SACRAMENTO, Calif. – On a late-February morning, more than 100 high school students were joined by teachers and parents as they gathered in East Portal Park in East Sacramento. Some held signs and others chanted, "No justice, no peace," as they marched toward their destination.

The last year has seen countless scenes like this play out in ...Read more

When the pandemic hit, Debórah Bond, like many artists, was caught off guard. “I thought I’d be juggling gigs and touring,” said the independent R&B/soul musician.

A full-time artist, Bond, 44, made a living through a patchwork of vocal gigs — performing live at weddings, bars and theaters, recording jingles, teaching vocal lessons and...Read more

LOS ANGELES – Ruth Alcantara stepped closer to her grandmother. Then closer, and closer still.

She crossed into the six-foot buffer zone that had separated them for so long and wrapped her arms around the older woman.

"Hola, abuelita, le extrañe mucho," she said, inches from her grandmother's ear. Hi, grandma, I missed you so much.

She ...Read more

Hank Azaria’s recent apology for voicing the character Apu Nahasapeemapetilon, an Indian-born convenience store clerk on “The Simpsons,” has launched some fascinating discussions that touch on, but also transcend, the role of pop culture in shaping the world we all share.

Azaria’s Apu has long come under fire for its stereotypical ...Read more

MINNEAPOLIS – Like many people, theater artist Jason Clusman lost his job because of the COVID-19 pandemic. Now, his new gig might help him get the old one back.

A stage manager whose shows at the Guthrie Theater include multiple stagings of "A Christmas Carol," Clusman, 40, was laid off along with about 200 others last spring. By June, he ...Read more

Doctors told Karen P. Campbell she was cancer-free a few weeks before last year's initial COVID-19 lockdown. But instead of going on with her life, the 48-year-old mom spent her spring and summer quarantined and scared.

And when she returned to her position at Penn Charter last fall as its Upper School Learning Specialist, she was just scared. ...Read more

New guidelines from the CDC: You do not have to hose down everything with hot bleach for a minimum of 90 sustained minutes.

You might have one of three reactions:

1. We've turned the corner! Only 60 minutes of bleach-blasting now!

2. I never did that anyway. At most I waved a container of Purell toward a package that was delivered, much like ...Read more