Dear Anna,

I'm a 31-year-old man in a relationship with my girlfriend (29) for three years. Last week right after we’d had sex, she told me she'd been really turned on earlier that day because a guy at her gym had been flirting with her pretty heavily. She said it like it was just a fun, sexy confession, like she thought I'd find it hot or ...Read more

It’s a Wednesday morning in Chicago and we’re waiting to find out if hungry people will have help getting fed this month.

The government shut down on Oct. 1, placing the federally funded Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program — which supports about 42 million Americans — in peril. Of the households that rely on SNAP, around 80% ...Read more

Over the last few years, as the world went topsy-turvy, I was able to pivot quickly.

I already had the expertise, the contacts and the platform. Within weeks, I was fielding requests for proposals that wouldn't have existed months earlier.

Resilience starts With the Art of the Pivot

Traditional employees often can't pivot this quickly. They'...Read more

LOS ANGELES — Tucked away in a small neighborhood below the Hollywood sign is Jackie Smook's puppet workshop, a small sequestered room with a single work table surrounded by the characters she handcrafts from the depths of her imagination. Smook, the creator of the web series "Dilly's World," is a whimsical and eccentric personality, falling ...Read more

As I write this, the first week of November, the fall leaf colors have barely made a ripple in my area. The sweetgums show a hint as do the gingkos. My Japanese maple looks like it did in July, and the list goes on. But I have been enjoying the oranges and yellows of autumn via the prettiest flowers ever.

It began with an early September ...Read more

Sometimes it takes a village to raise a child. Or for one 10-year-old in Northern California, a colony of bees.

When the city of Santa Rosa received an anonymous complaint this year about some problem insects in the area, city officials looked into the matter and zeroed in on the Bard family home and, in particular, its colony of thousands of ...Read more

We look at paintings of that first Thanksgiving more than 400 years ago, with tables sagging under the weight of wild game, venison, waterfowl, lobster and mussels, corn, beans and pumpkins We often sigh and say, “Life was so simple back then.”

It was simple. Life was so simple that heat in homes came from logs crackling in a fireplace. ...Read more

PHILADELPHIA — Rabbi Ethan Witkovsky and Reverend Adam Hearlson seem like they've been friends forever.

Witkovsky, 41, is the senior rabbi at Temple Beth Hillel-Beth El (TBH-BE), a Conservative movement synagogue in Wynnewood, Pennsylvania. Hearlson, 44, is the pastor at Overbrook Presbyterian Church (OPC), in Philadelphia.

Sitting in the ...Read more

Q. Even though my divorce has been final for a year, I sometimes like to spend the day with my ex and the kids. Not taking the chance of her saying no, I put the children first and ask the kids how they would feel if I came along. They say it’s fine, so then I tell their mother that I’d like to come along, and the kids want me to. I can tell...Read more

Dear Kid Whisperer,

I teach third-grade. I have had Behavioral Leadership training and I use Strategic Noticing, ESPN Greetings, etc. I have a student in my class who just wants to read (not the worst thing) but she wants to read and not do work. I made her stay in from recess to practice. She became angry, plugged her ears and started throwing...Read more

I am a human Bigfoot. I am taking the bold step of admitting this for two unsettling reasons:

1. My feet seem to be getting bigger.

2. The most fashionable shoes I own are a brand-new pair of slippers.

The alarming increase in the length, width and overall size of my already tremendous tootsies was evident when I purchased the aforementioned ...Read more

Before even getting out of your car, you start to question reality at Grounds for Sculpture. Driving in, there’s a group of people along the road holding a banner that reads “Hurrah Welcome,” and signs that say “We thought you’d never get here” and “I drink to your arrival.”

“Is this for me?” you may think. “How did they ...Read more

With their surgical nibbles, these large, semi-aquatic, buck-toothed rodents have emerged as crucial helpers for ecologists restoring degraded wetlands across the Great Lakes.

They are not the well-known, dam-building beavers but can often be found in the same marshy ecosystems. Muskrats — which are more closely related to voles and hamsters ...Read more

ST LOUIS -- Karen Hoffman tried to open her Messenger app to confirm a meeting she had later that morning in September. For some reason, it wouldn’t open.

She didn’t panic. It must be some kind of glitch. She tried to go through her Facebook account to look at her messages. That’s when she saw a notification that her account had been shut...Read more

LOS ANGELES — For a historian who writes about war, Rick Atkinson is surprisingly optimistic. The Pulitzer Prize-winning author and former journalist — who recently released the second volume in a trilogy of books about the American Revolution — believes that the bedrock of American democracy is solid enough to withstand any assaults on ...Read more

Your landscape will strike gold with this year’s new Chicklet Gold Esperanza. Though I am writing about Chicklet Gold, let's spill all the beans and tell you that Chicklet Red will make its debut in 2026.

So, if you think about the Chicklet Esperanza colors Orange, Gold and Red, you get the idea of the Chiclet chewing gum colors that many of ...Read more

I started my freelance career in 1988. Ronald Reagan was still president, the Berlin Wall was still standing, and if you wanted to pitch an editor, you typed a query letter on actual paper and mailed it with a self-addressed stamped envelope.

Thirty-seven years later, I'm still here. Still freelancing. Still adapting. I've survived five major ...Read more

Dear Anna,

I’m a 28-year-old woman who moved in with my boyfriend (30) after only four months of dating. It wasn't planned — my lease was ending, his roommate moved out and it just made sense financially and logistically. Plus, we were spending every night together anyway, so why pay for two places? We've now been living together for two ...Read more

Q: We’re two months in. Everything else is great, but he says we have no chemistry. Can it build? Give it more time?

A: I have a genuine question for you: Why would you want to be with someone who tells you that he has "no chemistry" (those are strong words) with you? Don't you think you deserve that, at a minimum?

With men, no, chemistry ...Read more