Q. My husband’s 8-year-old daughter has a birthday this weekend and she decided she would like to take a few friends to the movies and then out for frozen yogurt around the corner from our home. My husband and his ex-wife plan to take her and I was not invited. What’s good ex-etiquette?

A. Let’s clarify something first. Your husband’s ...Read more

Three of our elementary-school grands have a new landline phone sitting in their family room. They called us multiple times the first week it was installed, each time saying, "Hello, Watson?"

No, they didn't. Each time a soft voice cautiously said, "Hello, Grandma?"

The poor things were apprehensive. A handset that rests in a base alongside a ...Read more

MINNEAPOLIS -- Kirk Nelson walked outside recently to check on the honeybees he’d been tending for about six years, and got a stark surprise.

One of the two colonies in his backyard in Orono, Minnesota, had buzzed out of its hive — the queen, workers and drones alike — leaving nothing behind but honey.

“We had been out in the hive two ...Read more

PHILADELPHIA — The brides wore running gear — sneakers, comfy shirts, and, for one of them, a black ball cap that said “I Do.”

Kara McElvaine and Shelbie Turner got married Saturday while running the Philadelphia Half Marathon, exchanging vows every mile, smiling through the finish line.

“We decided to celebrate being each other’s ...Read more

LOS ANGELES -- The text arrived midday, saying a delivery to me was on hold. To fix the problem, all I had to do was click on a web link and enter my ZIP Code.

"Have a great day from the USPS team!" the text said.

The awkwardly worded message (with bad punctuation and an international phone number) was clearly not from the Postal Service. ...Read more

Twas the night before the night before my daughter was arriving home from college for Thanksgiving break.

I left the office early to finish my workday from home because my 8-foot, artificial, pre-lit Costco Christmas tree was being shipped to my apartment building between 3 and 5 p.m. and I needed to meet the delivery guy in the lobby so he ...Read more

Dear Kid Whisperer,

I have three middle school students in my math class who are just belligerent. I think it may be because they see that I now have control of my classroom, and they don’t want to be in a room where everyone is learning and not messing around. They also mock the other students who are being cooperative. Per the training I’...Read more

TAMPA, Fla. -- Like a new kid in town, Beverly Giffords walked across the parking lot toward Largo High School anxious about who she’d meet inside and what it would be like.

The 73-year-old retiree carried her blanket, some photos she’d grabbed from her trailer at Encore Vacation Village and the windshield sunshade from her car, so she’d ...Read more

The holidays bring happy times — but also financial burdens. And more than ever this past season. While inflation is easing, prices for just about everything are still considerably higher than they were pre-pandemic.

In fact, Bankrate’s 2024 Holiday Shopping Survey found that 28% of holiday shoppers say they are stressed about the cost of ...Read more

When it comes to shaving, I’m two-faced. One face I have been scraping with a blade since I was a teenager more than five decades ago, the other I recently started buzzing with an electric razor.

Neither face will make me a Hollywood star unless I stop shaving altogether and get the lead role in a remake of “The Wolf Man.”

So I left it ...Read more

ATLANTA -- After a contentious election cycle, many people look forward to the holidays as a time to reset. But some of us dread talking about politics with certain family members. Producer Natalie Mendenhall spoke to Drew Westen, a professor emeritus at Emory University and a licensed psychologist.

Here’s that interview with tips for you on ...Read more

GOODSPRINGS, Nev. — The line to enter the Goodsprings General Store snaked down state Route 161, sometimes spilling out into traffic. Wait times stretched well past an hour. Thankfully, there was nourishment nearby in the form of smoked iguana sandwiches and the ever-popular mole rat on a bun.

Thousands of video game fans descended on the ...Read more

TAMPA, Fla. — Veterans Elementary School in Wesley Chapel, Florida, has a long history of parents volunteering in its classrooms and supporting its activities.

But now, it’s in the process of kicking out its Parent-Teacher Association. The reason? A feud over money and how it was — and wasn’t — spent.

Over the summer, principal ...Read more

PHILADELPHIA -- The 990-foot SS United States served as a geographical marker of sorts on the Delaware River waterfront in South Philadelphia for almost 30 years. That is slated to change when the vessel is towed to Mobile, Alabama, for a final cleaning before it’s sunk into the Florida Panhandle. It is set to become the world’s largest ...Read more

Not so long ago (this year), in a land not so far away (this one), a debate roiled fiercely about free speech on college campuses.

On one side, students, faculty and interested observers advocated for safe spaces for marginalized groups and trigger warnings on certain materials and protested loudly when speakers whose ideas they abhorred were ...Read more

When its mid-November and your geraniums are still electrifying on the porch or patio you know you are talking about one of the Boldly varieties. Boldly Coral made its debut in 2022 and as such I had the opportunity to trial it in 2021. Since then it has been my go-to geranium because of its dazzling color and incredible longevity.

Boldly Coral...Read more

PHILADELPHIA — For nearly a century, a swashbuckling-style pair of gloves rested in a reliquary in the University of Pennsylvania library. Far from lost, but largely forgotten, the mystical gauntlets were disturbed over the decades only by the awestruck scholars and devotees who came to ponder, "What if?"

After all, it couldn't be true. They...Read more

MINNEAPOLIS -- Dariia Misko sounded remarkably calm as she described her life in Kyiv, Ukraine, where she frequently hears what sounds like popcorn popping in the distance.

The sound is attacks by military drones from Russia.

“I have repeatedly heard explosions and the work of air defense,” said Misko, a 26-year-old Ukrainian studying for ...Read more