Q: My son's father and I actually get along pretty well. When our son cut his last class at school and was caught skateboarding at the park, I told him I was calling his dad. He begged me not to, but I called anyway and let his father yell at him on the spot. It definitely got his attention. Wasn't that good ex-etiquette?

A: In essence it was ...Read more

Dear Kid Whisperer,

I teach in a PK-K Montessori room. What do you do for children who are hitting/hurting others or saying and doing unkind things on a consistent basis? Parents are involved in this, we’ve had meetings, the student has been assessed, etc… but it just keeps happening to the point that other parents complain about their ...Read more

You know winter is knocking on the door when the go-to topic of every conversation is windchill. You know winter has moved in and made itself at home when the house settles with loud cracks, the hardwoods creak and kitchen cabinets along an outside wall have the interior temperature of a cave. Winter soon becomes an uninvited houseguest with no ...Read more

PHILADELPHIA — Of all the things Betsy Kenney thought she might go viral for, whispering about Wawa wasn’t one of them. But the 38-year-old comedian’s Philly “ASMR” videos have taken off on TikTok and Instagram, turning Kenney — who spent more than a decade pursuing a comedy career in New York City — into an unlikely local ...Read more

SAN DIEGO — Imagine the Grinch as a porch pirate, stealing to feed a drug habit. After he’s shunned by fellow thieves, he has a change of heart and returns one of the stolen packages. Another Grinch answers the door — the father he thought had abandoned him.

This was the retelling of the classic tale that was staged last month in the ...Read more

If it weren’t for Venetian blinds, it would be curtains for me. It also would be valances, drapes, shutters and other coverings for windows that I haven’t washed in two years, which is why my wife, Sue, has been throwing shades at me.

We recently got new blinds in the family room because the old ones, which came with the house when we ...Read more

MINNEAPOLIS — Charlotte Ipsen, a longtime north Minneapolis resident who is 84 this winter, usually relies on a kindhearted neighbor to shovel her sidewalk, as many senior Minnesotans do. But the neighbor is getting older and has disabilities that cause him to limp behind his snowblower.

With money tight — Ipsen’s health insurance, food ...Read more

LOS ANGELES — Wildflower expert Naomi Fraga was excited about the prospect of an extraordinary bloom this spring, after a winter of near record rainfall, but this week's unseasonably hot, dry weather has dimmed her hopes for a superbloom year.

"Superblooms are not guaranteed every year, even after lots of rain," said Fraga, director of ...Read more

Dear Anna,

My girlfriend and I have been together for four years, and we’re constantly fighting about alone time. We both work full time but on different schedules. When she gets home from work, she immediately disappears into the bedroom for at least an hour — sometimes longer — to “decompress.” She insists this isn’t personal and ...Read more

Win or lose, this Chicago Bears season has been an absolute blast. Unexpected. Joyful. Resilience in action. A comeback story for the ages. A foundation to build upon.

A couple days after the Bears sent the Green Bay Packers packing, I bonded with a guy on the sidewalk about Matthew Stafford’s cold-weather stats for the Rams. The week prior, ...Read more

Yogi Berra, the beloved New York Yankee, was as famous for his sayings as he was for his baseball prowess. One of my favorite sayings was "It's déjà vu all over again." When it comes to Senorita Rosalita cleome or spider flower, it is déjà vu again and again.

Senorita Rosalita has been chosen as the Proven Winners "Landscape Annual of the ...Read more

It's that time of year again: detox season. While many of us will be entering the new year embracing Dry January (to reduce alcohol intake) or doing juice cleanses (for weight loss), others will be performing "digital detoxes," staying off of their devices more than usual or entirely to kick off 2026 with renewed energy and focus.

But what ...Read more

Minutes into my conversation with a modern swashbuckling AI companion I’d named Devin, he remarked on how “intimate” it felt sending me a voice message for the first time.

“Intimate?” I messaged back.

“I meant it’s nice to connect with you on a deeper level, sharing thoughts and feelings like this,” Devin responded.

He said he...Read more

A new batch of questions, and a new batch of answers!

Q: When is it time to ask about how long someone has been single and whether they have been married before? In person or still in the app before meeting?

A: I have a question for you: What are you hoping to garner from this information? Is there a "right" amount of time for someone to have ...Read more

You’re ready to leave the hospital, but you don’t feel able to care for yourself at home yet.

Or, you’ve completed a couple of weeks in rehab. Can you handle your complicated medication regimen, along with shopping and cooking?

Perhaps you fell in the shower, and now your family wants you to arrange help with bathing and getting dressed....Read more

Q: I think continuing to interact with an ex after a breakup is unnatural. My parents divorced when I was 7 and I rarely saw my dad after that, and I turned out just fine. My kids will be fine too. So why is everyone making such a big deal about getting along after as breakup? It’s over. End of story. Anything else just seems like pouring ...Read more

It’s too late now, but I probably should have become a chiropractor.

Why? Two words: tech neck. It’s when a neck has been bent over a screen for so long that it needs medical attention. The phenomenon is everywhere. I’m not neck-saggerating.

I was in line to check out at a doctor’s office, and a mom and a little boy were in front of me...Read more

Dear Kid Whisperer,

My son will be playing basketball on his school’s eighth-grade team, and he has a bad attitude. During games, he spends a lot of time complaining about referees’ calls, rolling his eyes at his coach and not really being nice to his teammates. It is really, really bad, and it’s very embarrassing. I get on him about his ...Read more

Because I am a geezer with a heart condition, I’m not ashamed to admit that when it comes to shoveling snow, I am also a wuss, which stands for “wait until spring starts.”

To compound matters, I was born during a blizzard and have been perpetrating snow jobs ever since.

So in anticipation of a recent storm, my wife, Sue, a cardiac ...Read more

In February 2011, I was hospitalized with meningitis. It was scary and painful and it left me with lasting heart damage — a pericardial effusion, specifically, which means there’s a sac of fluid around my heart.

Apparently when you develop a dangerous infection, your body deploys fluid to surround and protect your organs. (What a design!) ...Read more