Everyone of a certain age remembers Sally Struthers’ Save the Children TV commercials, encouraging viewers to improve the life of an impoverished child in a developing nation by sponsoring him or her for the price of a cup of coffee a day. Many organiz… Continue reading
By the time I crawled into bed after seeing my first rock concert, it was nearly three in the morning, yet I found the energy to scribble in my beloved red diary. “FANTASTIC!!!!!!” I wrote in my loopy adolescent script. It stretched across an entire li… Continue reading
New York City winters are sometimes so unseasonably warm that one holiday week, tree sellers wore shorts while hot chocolate vendors lost their shirts. As I browsed the balsam and cedar potpourri then, absentmindedly humming along to “Jingle Bells,” I … Continue reading
My grandma was what the polite would call “a character.” The third of nine, my Gram was born the year the Titanic went down. She spent her life doting on her Italian family, even if she couldn’t remember who she was bossing around at the moment, callin… Continue reading
The noise of the blow dryer caused Deborah Aquilino, known as Deb, to raise her voice as she spoke in the New Jersey hair salon where she works. Her five-foot nothing frame was barely noticeable over her generous personality as she told me the story th… Continue reading
When the parents of Natalie Perry and her sister sat their girls down for a family meeting, Perry learned that their father, a chief judge for the Court of Appeals in Boise, Idaho, was gay. The next day he moved out of the house and kept his secret in … Continue reading
My dentist discovered it. As we chatted, instead of looking me in the eye, she was focused on my mouth. “Your front teeth,” said Dr. Cynthia Brattesani. “You’ve got that pirate look again.” Telling her it was just a chipped tooth, she reminded me that … Continue reading
I opened my email back in September from the Joyce Theater, Manhattan’s popular dance performance venue. The subject line read: “Special Volunteer Opportunity with Twyla Tharp Dance!” Whoa! I thought. I love the Joyce! I love dance! I love Twyla! I cou… Continue reading
The recent uproar about fake ads on Facebook has shone a spotlight on how unreliable social media reports can be. But a couple of years ago, I learned this lesson firsthand — and in a very unexpected way. My story actually starts back when I was in six… Continue reading
In 2010, after a 29-year career as an editor and technical director at ABC News in Washington, D.C., Mike Kravinsky, 65, took a buyout offer and began making preparations for his second act. “At that point, I did exactly what you aren’t supposed to do … Continue reading