PHILADELPHIA -- Every day on the well-worn steps of the Philadelphia Museum of Art, Philadelphians and tourists alike take their turns pretending to be Rocky. But if you make the climb on the right afternoon, Mark Nicholson can make you feel like you really are the champ.

Off to the side, Nicholson sets up his speakers and displays a ...Read more

Dear Anna,

This isn’t about dating or sex so hopefully it’s OK! I’ve been having an issue with a friend who often agrees to plans but becomes unresponsive when it’s time to finalize the details. It’s left me feeling quite confused and a bit hurt. We’ll start discussing meeting up, and she seems enthusiastic, but then she suddenly ...Read more

DETROIT — Detroit's NFL Draft extravaganza may be over, but the materials that made it happen will still be put to good use.

Turf, fencing, set pieces and other materials used for the draft are being donated to local nonprofits, including Detroit Dog Rescue, a Detroit dog rescue.

The stage materials are being donated to help build the group'...Read more

Online dating is a tool, but like all tools, it has to be used correctly to get the results you want. You might have a fancy, expensive screwdriver, but it still won’t help you chop wood.

If dating apps and websites aren’t quite working for you, make sure you’re utilizing every item in your toolbox correctly.

Mistake #1: Messaging “...Read more

LOS ANGELES — In the sprawling metropolis of Los Angeles, home to nearly 4 million people, making friends is no easy feat. Especially if you're an adult. Research shows that people over 21 are more likely to face extra hurdles in forming friendships. The building blocks — time, proximity and scheduled opportunities to socialize — are ...Read more

LOS ANGELES -- Olvera Street, adorned with brightly colored papel picado (perforated paper) and teeming with lively puestos (food stalls), did not always look as vibrant as it does today. While the historic pedestrian street and El Pueblo de Los Angeles Historical Monument attract about 2 million tourists annually, many don't know how the area ...Read more

Dear Kid Whisperer,

I teach in a K-5 room for students with emotional and behavioral disorders (EBDs). I love my job and I run a tight ship. My students know that while they are in my room, their negative behaviors won’t work: They only get what they want with positive behaviors. However, a few of my students know that there are some ...Read more

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

____

I recently saw a headline in the New York Times that I thought was the answer to my prayers: "Anxious Parents are the Ones Who Need Help."

Yes, please, I thought, hoping to find acknowledgment of all the very real forces ...Read more

Q: My husband's sons live with us about 40% of the time and I have my three sons full time. My husband works in another city during the week, so it is sometimes only me and 5 boys. Now his ex says we need to have the kids 50/50 (and the kids want this as well), and even though my husband is out of town a lot, she still thinks it's his ...Read more

For the last century, flamingos in Florida were more likely to be spotted on T-shirts and cups in a souvenir shop than flapping around in the wild.

Then last summer, a flock of the rare and beautiful birds — a group is fittingly known as a “flamboyance” of flamingos — was blown to Florida on the fierce winds of Hurricane Idalia.

Eight ...Read more

Romance is in my blood. And I recently proved it by taking my wife for bloodwork.

On our anniversary.

It was the most romantic thing I have done for Sue since I took her to a landfill on our anniversary four years ago. I’m surprised she didn’t leave me there.

It’s a good thing she didn’t because I wanted this latest expression of love...Read more

LOS ANGELES — This month, Junipero Serra High School in Gardena, California, had a pep rally to celebrate the achievements of what might be its least conventional team: its cutting-edge space squad.

Seniors Isaiah Dunn, Christopher Holbert, Travis Leonard, Anderson Pecot and Henry Toler, junior Keith Davie and freshman Jonathan Cruz walked ...Read more

ATLANTA -- The entrepreneurs who arrived for the awards ceremony in a vast Cobb County ballroom wore tuxedos and gowns, suits and vibrant colors. One woman sported an eye patch with a sparkly skull and cross bones, like a glam pirate.

Some rolled in on wheelchairs, relied on canes, or covered their feeding tubes with their evening wear.

...Read more

A lot of my friends and I are turning 50 this year, which means my calendar is filled with celebrations to mark a half century (!) of life and memories and friendships and mistakes and love and heartbreak and reinvention and redemption.

And my social feeds are filled with ways to look like none of it happened.

There’s a product or procedure ...Read more

PHILADELPHIA -- A tall, young man carrying a camera stopped two young ladies strolling down South Street one recent afternoon.

“Would you mind if I took a photograph of you together?” the man politely asked the friends.

This being Philly, you can imagine what the response might have been. But instead there was the spark of recognition.

�...Read more

This month, 21 current and former Major League Baseball players invested their own money in youth baseball. If that sounds like a feel-good story in which baseball’s past paves the way for baseball’s future, think again.

The MLB team invested in Perfect Game, a company that holds pricey tournaments and prospect showcases for college and ...Read more

LOS ANGELES -- A dog-bites-woman story usually isn't much of a story at all. But an incident in one of L.A.'s wealthiest enclaves has become something else entirely.

What began in a Brentwood park on a summer day in 2022, when a dog owned by billionaire surgical-device inventor Gary Michelson allegedly bit another pet owner, has turned into ...Read more

Sparkling Rose may sound like an adult libation at your favorite Italian restaurant, but in the gardening world it is a Superbena or should I say a Super Verbena. Some in the green industry might consider it a novelty bedding plant, mainly due to its coloration. Personally, I don’t like the adjective novelty, mostly because of the dictionary�...Read more

I am known for saying texting is the “death of a first date” (morbid, I know… but true), and I stand by it. What I mean by that is this: Once numbers are exchanged, if you haven’t already set up the details of the date (time/date/location), then there is now a 65% chance of the date no longer happening. Here’s why:

- Someone simply ...Read more

PITTSBURGH — It started as a theoretical class project to improve the use of robots in a health care setting. It ended in a trip to California for two Carnegie Mellon students, who lived with a man with quadriplegia for a week as they tested and perfected their robotic interface.

Akhil Padmanabha, a third-year robotics Ph.D. student, and ...Read more