Dear Anna,

My girlfriend and I recently celebrated our second anniversary. I tried to make it special. I surprised her by booking a little cabin upstate she’d been eyeing for months, planned the whole weekend and cooked her favorite meal from scratch the first night. It wasn’t cheap, but I wanted to do it.

A few days later, she told me I �...Read more

LOS ANGELES -- For decades scientists and researchers have been vexed by a sound emanating from cats. Not a call of the wild, a roar or a hiss. No, multiple academics have attempted to decipher the meaning behind the mightily adorable meow of the domestic house cat.

Cats, it turns out, are conversationalists. And good news for cat parents: ...Read more

LOS ANGELES — Dating is hard. And complicating matters, was it possible my cat could be seen as, if not an outright red flag, a deterrent?

Cats come with stigmas. Everyone knows the outdated and offensive characterization of a cat lady — a stereotype conjuring images of solitude, eccentricities and probably cartons of ice cream.

But cat ...Read more

A major dating philosophy of mine is, “You have to hold yourself to the same standard as the person you’re looking for.”

I was working with a client a few years ago—nice guy in his early 40s—and at one of our meetings, he expressed to me what he was looking for in a woman. He mentioned certain physical features, a desired age range ...Read more

PHILADELPHIA -- Elysia Baskins and Christopher Johnson did not intend to raise a child together.

They instantly got along when they first met on Bumble in 2022; they both loved anime and eating Japanese food. But after their first date, Baskins didn’t feel the romantic chemistry, so they became best friends instead.

In 2025, Baskins got ...Read more

In almost three decades of growing apples at her family’s orchard in northern Illinois, SueEllen Arndt and her husband, Ralph, never experienced anything like this year.

Five spring frosts killed most of the blooms on their trees, she said, forcing Prairie Sky Orchard to close for the 2026 fall harvest season.

“In the last few years, they�...Read more

Dear Kid Whisperer,

I am struggling with my calm signal by itself being enough to stop me from raising my voice. I was successful for a while with it at school with my fourth-graders. I alternate between “Oh dear” and “Oh boy” as my calm signals. Near the end of the year, my students were starting to mimic me and make fun of me using it...Read more

The question these days is not “Can we afford to eat out?” but “Can we afford to tip?”

If you pay on a screen at a restaurant, the tip choices are 15%, 20%, 30%, and “take my wallet.” The awkward part is thinking it through and doing the math while the server stands there watching you.

We always tip, but sometimes one of us has to ...Read more

Q: My 9-year-old has started calling my husband “Dad.” Her father is furious and corrects her every time she does it. He says she already has a dad and allowing this is disrespectful. I understand why it hurts his feelings, but she's very close to her stepfather. This was her choice. What do I tell her?

A: There’s a fine line we walk ...Read more

PHILADELPHIA — Amanda Parezo, a self-professed “beach bum,” can no longer get onto the sand or lay out a beach blanket on her own.

The loose grains are “just impossible to navigate through” in a wheelchair, she said.

Still, she seizes every opportunity to return to the Shore — an activity that has brought her healing since her ...Read more

CHICAGO -- Englewood neighborhood native Deniece Rogers didn’t celebrate her 2011 bachelor’s degree, or her 2015 master’s degree. But when she crossed the finish line with her doctorate, she threw a party for herself because “that one, she felt.”

At 75, the Near North Side resident earned her Doctorate of Philosophy in Educational ...Read more

It’s been more than three years since California was in a drought. Reservoirs are above average levels. A strong El Niño is brewing in the Pacific that could bring soaking storms this winter.

But there’s a new endangered species across the state: grass. A broad new water conservation law will soon take effect in phases, banning the ...Read more

If I am ever put on trial for committing crimes against journalism, a charge for which I am clearly guilty, I’d get off by pleading insanity. Besides, my lawyer is in jail.

Maybe that’s why I wasn’t selected when I was called — not once, but twice — for jury duty.

When I spoke with the commissioner of jurors for an explanation, I ...Read more

CHICAGO -- Mike Lang was mid-high-five when he heard a faint ping against the bow of his boat.

Then came a clunk, as his wedding ring dropped 27 feet to the bottom of Lake Michigan.

Lang, 44, had been watching the U.S. Air Force Thunderbirds perform in last month’s Chicago’s Air and Water Show from his boat, anchored about a mile and a ...Read more

LOS ANGELES — Gnocchi sits attentively on a Beverly Grove sidewalk with his owner, Julia Luke. Gnocchi wears a pink collar with his name on it, an air tag and a red harness with a leash. He observes the neighbors. He sniffs the grass. He watches bugs crawl in the dirt.

"People know Gnocchi's name before they know mine," Luke said.

But seeing...Read more

Those of us attending the Young’s Plant Farm Annual Garden Tour in Auburn, Alabama, always have our eyes open to new plants, applications, or recipes. One plant that demanded attention this year was Golden Cascade Baby Sun Rose. Know upfront: It is NOT a rose. It’s from Proven Winners and marketed under their Proven Selections label. I hope ...Read more

On an August morning two years ago, Meredith Melville was crossing Piedmont Avenue in Oakland, California, to meet a friend at a cafe. While in the crosswalk, she noticed a car some distance away.

Perhaps she misjudged its speed, she said, because she’d walked only partway across the street when the car, a Toyota sedan, came bearing down on ...Read more

Dear Anna,

My wife and I are in our early 30s, married five years, no kids yet. I’ve started quietly looking up divorce lawyers, and I hate that it’s gotten to that point. The root of it is that I can’t trust what she tells me anymore. It’s been a pattern for years — she’ll agree to something, and I later find out she never actually...Read more

I don't know how you begin to sum up the impact of Gloria Steinem's life, except to say that almost every moment I’ve walked through the world as a woman has probably been paved, in some small or enormous way, by her advocacy.

Steinem lived a remarkable 92 years before her death on Sept. 2. She co-founded the National Women’s Political ...Read more

CHICAGO -- Karla Leon knew something was wrong when she couldn’t log into her financial aid portal.

For the past three years, the University of Illinois Chicago accounting major had checked her financial aid package well before classes resumed, confident that her scholarship and tuition costs would remain relatively steady.

Her education has...Read more