SAN DIEGO -- Isaac Santos, 22, remembers growing up with family barbecues at his aunt’s house in Imperial Beach, south of San Diego, and swimming with his cousins. Sure, the ocean was dirty sometimes, but the beaches were open and accessible.

But since late 2021, swaths of the south San Diego coast have been closed every day — 1,345 days in...Read more

Our primary care doctor announced he is joining a concierge practice and invited us to follow him. We were excited, thinking this meant luxurious fluffy white robes in the exam room and 500-thread-count cotton sheets on the table instead of that crinkly deli wrap paper.

Visions of coffee bars danced in our heads. The concierge practice could ...Read more

Try as we might to avoid it, sudden, expensive emergencies can happen to anyone. A pet might need an unexpected vet visit, your car might need a replacement part or you may experience a layoff. That’s where emergency savings come in: By keeping a savings fund that you only use for emergencies, you can have peace of mind knowing you can tackle ...Read more

MINNEAPOLIS -- On her first outing with a running club, Bria Black got passed. A lot.

“They were so sweet and so welcoming, but they were like, eight-minute pace marathoners,” she said. “I had never even ran before, so when we were running together, they would just pass me up,” Black said. “They would be encouraging, like, ‘Go Bria,...Read more

Dear Kid Whisperer,

I can’t believe I am asking this, because it seems so simple, but I can’t figure out how to do it. How do I get my 4-year-old to clean her room? With my now-8-year-old, we would just tell her to do it, and she would do it. Not with our second. She says she’ll do it and then doesn’t. I threaten her with loss of ...Read more

Q. My 14-year-old son refuses to come to my home and I have no idea why. I’m supposed to see him a night or two during the week and every other weekend, but he just won’t come over. I don’t talk to his mother much and when we do, it’s not pretty. She tells me there’s nothing she can do. I think she’s probably badmouthing me and is ...Read more

Something fishy is going on in my family. And it involves, for approximately the hundredth time, a dead fish.

The latest fine finny friend to go belly-up was Igor, a blue boy betta who belonged to two of my granddaughters, which made him, I guess, my grandfish.

But not to worry: There’s a replacement Igor swimming in the tiny bowl on the ...Read more

If you’re expecting to get an annual bonus this year, it can be tempting to think about everything you want to buy or start planning for an extravagant vacation.

But before that extra direct deposit hits your checking account, take some time to consider how you want to use it. No matter the size of your hard-earned bonus, you should think ...Read more

My friend Jason is getting ready to drop off his daughter, his firstborn child, at college. And by “getting ready,” I mean crying himself to sleep at night and asking strangers what to do.

Normal. If there’s another way to do it, I certainly don’t know it.

“I feel like the dad in ‘My Big Fat Greek Wedding,’” he texted me the ...Read more

Dear Anna,

I’ve been with my boyfriend for three years, and I love him—he’s funny, supportive and kind. Right now, we’re living at my sister’s place while saving for our own apartment. He’s 29 and I’m 27. I work full-time as a freelance writer and make a comfortable living, but his part-time retail job barely covers his own ...Read more

Logic would tell you that if you put the magic in pink lemonade, you can do it to grapefruit too. That’s just what happened, and the horticultural blogosphere is rumbling with excitement.

Superbells' Magic Pink Lemonade calibrachoa has been out for a couple of years and has won awards like Perfect Score, Top Performer. Director’s Select ...Read more

While a lot of the advice I give revolves around how to get the first date, even more important is how to nail that first date.

Let’s take a look at some tips for the all-important first date:

What not to do on a first date:

1. Be late without notice

2. Be excessively late, with or without notice

3. Have your phone out or text ...Read more

PHILADELPHIA — Paul Meshejian, a 76-year-old retired actor who lives in Philadelphia, said he never liked the idea of his body being embalmed and taking up land in an expensive box. The remaining spots in his family's plot and cemetery have already been claimed anyway.

Cremation, he said, is "a waste of energy and throws a lot of pollution ...Read more

LOS ANGELES — It has been a brutal stretch for L.A. restaurants. Since 2023, hundreds of notable spots have shuttered amid escalating costs for food and labor, and a weakening economy.

More recently, the local scene has also been roiled by the January wildfires, which torched several restaurants, caused some to temporarily close and displaced...Read more

We had a good-size crowd together this week. Three out-of-town grands and six grands who live in town, met up for three consecutive days. We rotated from house to house to house so that no one house would be singled out as a disaster area.

Due to the size, volume and rapid movement of the group, my intelligence gathering is often limited to ...Read more

BALTIMORE -- Imagine you’re a character in a math problem. You have three platters, but two cakes. All three platters need to have the same amount of cake. How would you split it?

Without even saying the word “divide,” a group of about 20 teachers from private schools spanning Pennsylvania, Maryland and Virginia, stacked cubes and folded ...Read more

Dear Kid Whisperer,

I teach fourth grade. My question is about putting students in teams. I have been pretty successful at keeping them on the same team all year, as you describe in your book. I am just wondering what you suggest when a team isn’t working out for the teacher? For example, some of my students have become very good friends ...Read more

Q. I feel like my wife is too close to her ex. I realize they are co-parents and must talk about their kids, but I caught her on the phone in the middle of the night chatting with him. We did have a problem with her teenage son, and they said that’s what they were talking about, but talking in the middle of the night seems like crossing the ...Read more

I’m the very model of the modern marching man. And I am determined to put one foot in front of the other until I walk headlong into a wall.

But I can’t say the same for the vast majority of walkers who don’t seem to know where they are going, usually while wandering aimlessly in front of me.

That is why I think people should be given ...Read more