When Team USA bobsledder Elana Meyers Taylor won gold, I let out a little cheer.

We had just watched a lovely segment on NBC about her path to the 2026 Winter Olympics, which included returning to the sport after her two sons were born — one of whom spent his first eight days of life in the NICU and both of whom were born deaf.

Meyers Taylor...Read more

The Garden Guy makes it his charge to keep up with producers from Texas to New York, keeping my fingers on what is happening regarding hot new flowers and creative recipes for baskets, containers and landscape designs. One of my favorites is Rowe Farms in Jacksonville, Texas.

Rowe Farms always starts off their posts saying, “Feeling Blessed,�...Read more

MINNEAPOLIS — Bobby Wise boasts many tattoos, but the one with Elsa, the Disney snow queen who can manipulate ice, is special.

Wise, 32, has for months protested against the ongoing federal immigration operation in Minnesota, and he wanted a permanent reminder. So Wise got some ink of the “Frozen” heroine — wielding a molotov cocktail �...Read more

SAN JOSE, Calif. — For Deo Agustin, 54, caregiving doesn’t stop when her workday as an in-home childcare provider ends — it simply shifts. Agustin cares for her 79-year-old mother, a job she’s proud of but that she said has worn on her sense of well-being.

“Mentally, it’s definitely taking a toll,” she said.

An increasing number...Read more

PHILADELPHIA -- Scott Harmon and Mark Williams met each other in a maximum-security prison in the heart of Pennsylvania coal country in 2012.

They had both grown up in the Philly area; both were in their early 20s, at the very beginning of life sentences without the possibility of parole for homicide convictions. Both had sons.

They were also ...Read more

CHICAGO -- The history of Black History Month began 100 years ago, in the old YMCA building on South Wabash, a wide-shouldered block of pale red brick erected in 1913. It was once the nexus of Bronzeville, the premier gathering spot. At least 80 Chicago organizations met there regularly. When the Harlem Globetrotters (which formed in Bronzeville...Read more

As the world we live in moves further and further online, there is still the opportunity to meet someone in person, or “in the wild,” as it were. I’m talking about meeting IRL — in real life. While there are, of course, no guarantees, if you’re looking to supplement your experience with online dating, I want to make sure we cover the ...Read more

Dear Anna,

I’m 26 and going through my first real breakup. My boyfriend and I have been together for almost four years — he’s my first serious relationship, first love, all of it. We’ve been incredibly happy, but recently some major life circumstances have come up that are pushing us in different directions. There’s technically a way ...Read more

LOS ANGELES — I'm getting a brain massage — and it's sublime.

I'm lying on a heated massage bed, cocooned in a soft, weighted blanket, as Kayla Faraji caresses my cheeks with billowy, pink goose feathers. She slides them down the sides of my neck and around my bare shoulders, sending chills up my spine.

"Now I'm scratching, scratching ...Read more

Dear Kid Whisperer,

Like all parents, I like to make my kids happy. I didn’t have a lot growing up, and I now have plenty of resources, so when my three boys (5, 10 and 12) want something, my wife and I like to get it for them. Whether it’s a gumball at the mall, or a video game or a motor scooter, or whatever, it’s easy for us to provide...Read more

Q. When I got a divorced, I moved to another town with my now-9-year-old son. His father continues to live in our family home and maintain the same friends, which includes my best friend and her husband who also have a son my son’s age. They are best friends, too. When my son visits his father, he wants to play with his old friend, but when my...Read more

Against our daughter’s better judgment, she sometimes asks if we can homeschool her youngest when she has a scheduling conflict.

Her concern is not that we don’t cover the material; her concern is that we modify and augment the material or sometimes deviate entirely from the material.

We call it enrichment.

The last time our student was ...Read more

ST. PAUL, Minn. -- The server at Estelle in St. Paul had just brought over some complimentary cheese curds when Amanda Burke skipped the small talk and started to interrogate her new suitor. It was their very first date, and Burke launched into her “dealbreaker” questions:

No. 1: Have you ever cheated on someone?

No. 2: How many times have...Read more

This Tuesday and Wednesday, four holidays from different cultures and religions overlap in a rare calendar year.

The celebrations of Fat Tuesday (Mardi Gras) and Lunar New Year both occur on Tuesday, Feb. 17. This won’t happen again until Feb. 13, 2029, according to the websites chinahighlights.com and mardigrasneworleans.com.

Ramadan is ...Read more

According to an old saying, which must have been said by somebody old, muscles have memory. I forget who said it because my muscles are soaking in milk of amnesia.

Still, I thought I was the oldest member of my gym until I met a guy who was born during the Roosevelt administration (Franklin, not Teddy) and won’t let my muscles forget it.

At ...Read more

LOS ANGELES — The late afternoon sun was setting over Coldwater Canyon when the bus arrived. Students from Boyle Heights' Bravo High spilled out into TreePeople, a nature reserve and nonprofit in Coldwater Canyon Park, and took off hiking.

As they looked around the sage and monkeyflower-lined path, their chatter quieted, and soon, they were ...Read more

LOS ANGELES -- The photograph is so intimate, so vulnerable, it's painful to look at.

It depicts a woman in her early 20s lying on a hospital bed twisted to the side, her wrists and ankles restrained. The black-and-white image — nearly five feet wide — is so crisp that bits of the woman's toenail polish glimmer and the hair on her thigh ...Read more