‘Tis the season to be thankful, which is why I am hanging tight to the fourth Thursday in November. I may be hanging on by the greasy tip of a wishbone swinging dangerously low over scalding hot gravy, but I refuse to let go of Thanksgiving, the only holiday that has not been grossly commercialized.

For starters, I am thankful there is no ...Read more

Money isn’t just a financial issue — it’s also an emotional one.

For half of Americans, financial stress is taking a serious toll on their mental health, according to a recent survey by Jenius Bank. A striking 50% of respondents reported battling anxiety, stress or depression tied to their finances, while 53% admitted to thinking of ...Read more

CHICAGO -- Customers flocked to the bright red and yellow awning of Mac’s Deli on a cloudy Thursday afternoon, walking away with foil-wrapped workday lunches of warm Italian beef sandwiches and hot dogs.

Inside the new restaurant on Sangamon Street in the West Loop, the grills, fryers and registers were all manned by workers currently in ...Read more

Dear Kid Whisperer,

I teach fourth-grade math. I have rarely had any significant behavior issues in my 32 years of teaching. My question is about helping kids stay focused. I have a few students who drift off even though I am animated, high energy and have good lesson plans.

Answer: I’m going to show you how to effectively prevent, mitigate ...Read more

Q. I have been dating my boyfriend for 6 months. We do not live together but see each other or talk almost every day. His ex died three years ago. They had a daughter, who is 6, who lives with my boyfriend. The problem is my boyfriend has a very large tattoo of both his ex and his daughter’s names on his chest right above his heart. This makes...Read more

LOS ANGELES -- In March 1998, Ben Decter drove from Los Angeles to Tijuana to get medicine for his 17-month-old daughter, Addie. She had "catastrophic childhood epilepsy," the neurologist had told him, and a drug not yet available in the U.S. was their best bet to treat her nonstop seizures.

That terrifying moment is currently revisited five ...Read more

CHICAGO -- Lenore Lindsey did not consider herself a baker when she opened Give Me Some Sugah at age 50 in 2008. Neither did Vamarr Hunter when he took over the South Shore bakery this year at the same age.

The late-in-life knack for baking isn’t the only parallel in their stories, first reported by the Chicago Sun-Times. Hunter never dreamed...Read more

BODEGA BAY, Calif. — For the first time since the 13-year-old San Jose boy woke up shivering and alone on a deserted stretch of beach two weeks ago, covered in salt and sand after clinging for hours to a floating ice chest, he returned Saturday to pray.

Jude Khammoungkhoune’s father had clutched the cooler beside him as long as he could ...Read more

LOS ANGELES — Australian researchers, who spent years towing seal-shaped decoys through waters infested with great white sharks, have determined that wrapping the lures in very bright lights — sort of like aquatic Christmas trees — seems to turn sharks away.

That's because, from below, sharks are accustomed to seeing the dark silhouettes ...Read more

My mother was the life of her 100th birthday party.

She also was the star in our little family band — three children, one daughter-in-law, five grandchildren, three grandchildren’s spouses and five great-grandchildren — who gathered at Zody’s 19th Hole, a popular restaurant at the E. Gaynor Brennan Municipal Golf Course in our hometown ...Read more

Most baby boomers — those born between 1946 and 1964 — are now in retirement. While many have enjoyed successful careers and comfortable lifestyles, others find themselves in a less-than-ideal financial situation. A common regret among this generation is not saving more for their golden years.

According to Bankrate’s 2024 Financial ...Read more

Donald Hammen, 80, and his longtime next-door neighbor in south Minneapolis, Julie McMahon, have an understanding. Every morning, she checks to see whether he’s raised the blinds in his dining room window. If not, she’ll call Hammen or let herself into his house to see what’s going on.

Should McMahon find Hammen in a bad way, she plans to...Read more

150 million years ago, Laurasia

The massive neck dips, casting a curving shadow on the mossy ground. The dinosaur's jaws close around its prize. The creature lifts its head, nearly dainty in scale, and contentedly gnaws a mouthful of ferns.

It's the late Jurassic Period in the super continent of Laurasia, some 85 million years into the reign ...Read more

CHICAGO — Maggie Fischer leads her brown miniature horse Eve out of her pasture and begins her training with a walk through her backyard in Sycamore in DeKalb County. The horse, known for her voluminous mane that reminds her owners of Tina Turner, shoves as many fallen leaves in her mouth as she can fit. Moving at a slow walk at first, she ...Read more

In a TikTok post that’s been liked by more than a million users, TikTok user @rabbitsandtea, who goes by “A,” sits on a couch dressed in sweatpants and a sweatshirt. Her long, brown hair untied, she is petting her cat while hawk-like bird calls play in the background. Text on the screen reads: “Doing my part as an American woman by ...Read more

SAN DIEGO -- There’s a couch, a keyboard and a washing machine. You can count two widescreen TVs, a dozen pieces of luggage and who knows how many bicycles. Don’t forget the three-story dollhouse. Or the pile of needles.

The collection rests on layers of tarps and clothes that likely adds up to hundreds, if not thousands, of pounds of ...Read more

RALEIGH, N.C. -- In the winning photograph, Lee Berry stands naked as a plucked turkey on his Richmond County farm, grinning like Don Juan in a baseball cap, hiding his naughty bits behind an armload of prized collard greens.

Between the rows of leafy vegetables, he practically radiated sensuality and vitamin A, so the judges overwhelmingly ...Read more

Alpha Male has won.

What happens now?

Comedian Brent Terhune has for years satirized the angry, working-class white man who rails against libtards and expresses unyielding devotion to Donald Trump. His monologues resound with right-wing rants and epitomize toxic masculinity in a character he calls Alpha Male. But the aggrieved American man now...Read more

Awards for plants come in a variety of names: Louisiana Super Plant, Mississippi Medallion, as an example, and in Georgia where I live, it is the Classic City Award given out by the University of Georgia. The UGA Trial Gardens said in a press release that the winners represent the best overall in the gardens and were ranked on a scale of one to ...Read more

You’re a planner. You have your calendar color-coded, dinner reservations booked a month in advance, and you know exactly what you’ll be doing on your next vacation, down to which café you’ll stop at for your all-important afternoon iced coffee.

You meet someone who’s all about “going with the flow,” a non-planner who would sooner ...Read more