Michaeleen Doucleff set out to examine her family’s relationship to — reliance on, really — screens and junk food.

Why was she checking texts at every stop sign when biking with her daughter, Rosy? Why was she mindlessly devouring Pringles? Why did Rosy impatiently count the minutes to nightly cartoons from the moment she got home? When ...Read more

In a perfect world, caring employees would quickly fix your customer service problems.

We don't live in a perfect world.

That's the reason I started writing Problem Solved, a customer service advice column. The premise of the feature is simple: Every week, I take a seemingly unsolvable customer service problem — and solve it.

And there are ...Read more

This year, it is time: It's Lime Time.

Lime Time is a ColorBlaze coleus selection that has proven itself, earning Perfect Score and Top Performer awards from north to south. This will be the easiest plant to grow, offering the most riveting color you can add to your landscape beds.

The Garden Guy challenges you to find another color that ...Read more

PHILADELPHIA -- South Philly’s Mark Abadi has had a way with word games since he was old enough to pick up a Scrabble board.

By 10, he would complete large-print mini games and crossword puzzles, and started playing Scrabble against his parents.

He became what he calls a “word nerd,” obsessing over newly-learned words and trying out new...Read more

KANSAS CITY, Mo. — On the corner of West 12th Street and Liberty Street in Kansas City’s West Bottoms sits a former United States Postal Service station.

Coincidentally, the old mail hub is now home to a place where visitors can not only buy stamps, but also make them.

Inside the historic 1920s building is ADHDIY Craft Cafe, a plant shop ...Read more

We have another batch of dating and relationship questions today. Get ready!

Q: How do I heal after a sudden breakup? I feel no desire to ever date again.

A: What you're feeling right now is completely normal. It feels like your heart is literally broken. You feel like you never want to date again. Don't try to override that feeling. It's part...Read more

Dear Anna,

My girlfriend and I have been together for a while, and we have a genuinely loving, solid relationship. The one real struggle is our sex life. This isn’t a case of the mythical “lesbian dead bed,” because we’ve never had a lot of sex. From the beginning, she’s had reasons for not being in the mood — weight gain, stress, ...Read more

Q. My 11-year-old daughter started her period and asked her mother not to tell me. So, she didn't. I found out almost two months later. Isn't this something my ex should have told me, even if our daughter asked her not to? What's good ex-etiquette?

A. This is a tender situation, and it sits right at the intersection of a child's growing need ...Read more

It happened at our oldest daughter’s place. I rang the bell, peeked in the side window and saw an ill-defined, furry mass lumbering toward the door.

My mind flashed back to my days in the Pacific Northwest when Bigfoot sightings were common. Was it a Bigfoot sighting? Here and now, in a sprawling suburb?

As the creature drew closer, I could ...Read more

The failure of colleges of education to teach behavior management is creating PK-12 schools that, through no fault of their own, are in chaos. This chaos is leading to schools churning out anti-social people.

Something must be done, and it must be done right now.

Behavior management isn’t something that you can just know about, it’s ...Read more

At the dawn of 2026, social media influencers at home and abroad proclaimed it the year of the "analog lifestyle," a call to reduce digital connectivity as smart tech and screen time dominate a person's attention span.

Selly Tan, an influencer from California, said people are "craving something real again," and vowed to print her photos, read ...Read more

MIAMI – When a man named Sergio messaged Pastor Jennifer LeClaire insisting she had promised him a personal phone call and prophetic counseling, she assumed it was a misunderstanding.

Though he was an avid follower of the South Florida pastor’s morning prayer broadcast on Facebook, LeClaire didn’t know him.

Sergio told LeClaire that he ...Read more

LOS ANGELES — It took nearly a year, but the families of B'nai Simcha Jewish Community Preschool have found a permanent campus in Pasadena after the Eaton fire destroyed their site, a rebirth that has given hope to the battered child-care industry in the region.

Their move represents both the struggles of child-care providers and the strong ...Read more

If I started my own plumbing business, I would be like the Three Stooges, who played plumbers in one of their classic movie shorts and ended up flooding a house.

But if the drain in your shower ever gets clogged, I’m the guy to call.

Unlike Moe, Larry and Curly, I somehow solved that plumbing problem without turning our humble abode into ...Read more

ST. LOUIS -- Kelsey Miller trimmed her client’s long hair and started blow drying while keeping her eyes on the Olympic figure skater gliding across the phone screen.

Miller, who works as a stylist at 13th and Washington salon, helped perfect Olympian Alysa Liu’s signature “halo” hairstyle, those alternating rings of dark brunette and ...Read more

For the first time in history, the USA women’s hockey team and the USA men’s hockey team both won gold at the same Olympic Winter Games.

The men’s team last won gold in 1980, against Finland, shortly after defeating the heavily favored Soviet Union in a match that stunned and sustained a weary nation. The game against the Soviets, which ...Read more

The Garden Guy received quite a few comments and messages from a recent Facebook post picturing a Let’s Dance Sky View hydrangea in partnership with a Pyromania Backdraft red hot poker or torch lily. This prompted me to ask Google to show me photos of hydrangea partnerships or combinations in the landscape.

The results brought back old ...Read more

PHILADELPHIA — When my neighbor told me during last month’s snowstorm that I had to shovel the sidewalk around my house, I thought she was joking. It’s my first winter in the city. It didn’t snow much where I grew up, so the whole idea of shoveling snow was foreign to me. Call me naive, but I assumed the city would do it. Or my landlord....Read more