Q. My ex takes me back to court about three times a year. Rarely does anything change, and it costs thousands, which just frustrates me further. The court just ordered us into co-parenting classes. I don't think it will help and it will be a waste of time, but we have to do it because it is court-ordered. What's good ex-etiquette?

A. Courts ...Read more

Paul is my new physical therapist. He’s a British guy on YouTube. The great thing about YouTube medical care is that there’s no paperwork to fill out and your insurance is never questioned. Plus, your health care professional doesn’t know if you leave the workout to answer text messages.

PT Paul has been helping me with my trick knee. It ...Read more

Dear Kid Whisperer,

My wife and I are at our wits’ end with our 16-year-old son. He isn’t a behavior problem and never has been. The problem is that since middle school, he has basically refused to work toward anything but barely passing grades in math, and now that most science classes involve math, he’s almost failing in those classes ...Read more

Enough time had passed since the patient’s previous colonoscopy that she met the criteria to undergo another, said Steven Itzkowitz, a gastroenterologist at the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai in New York.

She was in “reasonably good health,” and the risks of the procedure — bleeding, reaction to anesthesia, perforation of her ...Read more

Medicine commercials give me a headache. Unfortunately, I have to pay attention to them because their products can either: (a) relieve my headache or (b) kill me.

So I strike a compromise: Whenever one of these pitches comes on the TV screen, which happens approximately once a minute, I turn down the sound.

I can’t bear to listen as the ...Read more

FORT WORTH, Texas -- The air was warm and breezy as Martin Lisius sped northeast on Texas 25, near Archer City, in his Acura MDX.

The prairie extended so far in each direction it felt like you would fall off the edge of the earth if you walked far enough.

Puffy white cumulus clouds inched across the sky a few thousand feet above the ground. In...Read more

PHILADELPHIA -- Dodge Danley was getting his usual, relaxing in the reclined chair while his barber, William Sanders, who goes by Siddiq, carefully shaved his sideburns.

Sanders stepped back to assess his work. He spotted a stray whisker and moved in with the electric razor. Next to Danley was a shampoo sink, still wet from his rinse. The TV ...Read more

Dear Anna,

I’m an experienced threesome participant, but I’ve been happily monogamous for years. Recently, my wife and I decided to try having a threesome together because she never really got to have the fun, slutty 20s experience she wanted. (For context, this is a two women, one nonbinary person situation.) Because it was her first time,...Read more

There is a new flower showing up at garden centers that is pure Magic. In fact, its official name is Superbells Magic Double Grapefruit. If you aren’t familiar with the name, it is a calibrachoa, a petunia relative. Double gives reference to flowers that, in this case, look like miniature roses.

Magic is your key descriptor telling you that ...Read more

All too often, I get questions like these from clients:

--“What did they mean when they said that?”

--“How can I ask, ‘What are we?’”

--“Why didn’t they text me this morning like usual?”

--“Why don’t we have plans lined up for the weekend already?”

From my 15 years as a dating coach, I can give an educated guess as ...Read more

PHILADELPHIA -- Duwenavue Santé Johnson and Joseph Carrillo first met in San Francisco when they lived a block apart.

But that arrangement didn’t last. They have now been married for 17 years, and have lived 3,000 miles apart for the majority of the time.

Johnson lives in Philadelphia's Old City neighborhood, where she works as a senior ...Read more

I sat in the parking lot of my son’s school the other night, waiting for his team to finish their second hour of lacrosse practice at the end of a weekday that also included AP exams and finals prep and end-of-year presentations and all the other markers of an American May.

I marveled at their energy. I delighted in their commitment. I ...Read more

Dear Kid Whisperer,

I am a substitute teacher looking to obtain my special education teaching license, and I am reading your book. Given that the practical tools you offer work well with the most challenging students, does this also include special education students with behavioral challenges, including autistic students?

Answer: First, you ...Read more

There’s a good chance the husband has his Cincinnati Reds ball cap surgically attached to his head. It’s that time of year.

We were in the quaint historic river town of St. Charles, Missouri, leaving a sidewalk café, when a voice yells, “PETE ROSE, JOE MORGAN, JOHNNY BENCH!”

It came from an older man, wearing a red St. Louis Cardinals...Read more

Q. My kid’s mom and I share our children’s time equally. My partner wants us to live together, but we’ve only been dating for six months, and I have two kids who love their mom. I’m afraid it will be confusing to live with two different women in the same role. What’s good ex-etiquette?

Answer: Slow down.

Not because your relationship...Read more

LOS ANGELES -- Talk to the passionate team behind KidSTREAM, a new children's museum in Ventura County, and they'll tell you about the many lofty goals they have for the 21,000-square-foot space which opened to the public Thursday.

They'll describe how the museum is the first of its kind in Ventura County and how they hope to make it accessible...Read more

With apologies to Frank Sinatra, who is dead and can’t sue me, I am the chairman of the board. And I’m not just singing my own praises.

After decades of failing miserably at board games, one of which had such a monopoly on me that I went directly to jail, I am game to announce that I recently emerged triumphant in not one but two exciting ...Read more

It’s unlikely that I’ll take up cattle ranching at this point in my life, so the ability to saddle up a horse and separate a steer from the herd isn’t a must-have skill.

But do I still want to learn how to do that at a visionary event called the Top Hand Cowgirl Challenge?

Oh, heck yes.

What’s drawing me, and the hundreds of other ...Read more

CHICAGO -- With a glass of white wine in one hand and a printed spreadsheet of names and addresses of around 50 lawmakers in the other, Allyssa Bujdoso was setting up for a crowd at Deep Red Wine Merchant in Avondale. A guy with a sign reading “(Expletive) Trump” rushed through the door, handed over a sheet of stamps and then hurried away.

...Read more

The Garden Guy surfed the web and stumbled across a photo you most likely have never seen. It featured three Proven Winners National Plants of the Year in a wonderful combination. The flowers were the Safari Dusk Jamesbrittenia or South African phlox, which is the "Annual of the Year." The combo also featured Supertunia Hoopla Vivid Orchid (the ...Read more