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At times we all need a shoulder to lean on and a close confidante to listen to us complain and even cry. In turn, we pride ourselves on being good listeners when our friends and family need us. As journalists, listening comes with the job, and we've honed it through the decades.  However, at the same time, we're concerned about getting sick, watching the stock market go up and now down, dealing with inflation and the high prices of gas and groceries, the threat of a nuclear confrontation when we grew up in the Cuban missile crisis and a major...

  The expression “even-steven” is widely used to indicate a mutually beneficial trade or even match. The concept reaches into so many parts of our lives.    You want the cake divided into equal slices with the same amount of frosting and roses. (Unless you’re dieting or watching those carbs.) You want the money for the job split equally since you’ve all shared the work and were there for the same number of hours. (Did you really count?) And if you’re in a debate, you want the same number of minutes allotted to make your points.  Many couples try to...

Tis the season to eat, eat, eat, rejoice and get together with family. And yet, the holidays can also trigger quite the opposite response. Thanks to a combination of obligations, consumerism and bad taste, family differences and feuds whether over the right way to make the mashed potatoes or to get vaccinated against the flu or Covid, we sometimes feel more stretched and stressed than joyful. And we haven't even thrown politics into the mix. In an effort to add some levity to our preparations this year, we have come up with a few fictitious Thanksgiving spoilers to feed your...

  The internet certainly gets its share of criticism, some well-deserved. Yet, one reason we like it is for the relationships it has helped foster.  Many will never become dear friends or lead to true friendships as we define that word. But some have definitely become acquaintances with whom we learn we have much in common. This forms the basis of many micro-communities within a larger one such as Facebook or other virtual sites.  We crave community that is built on common interests such as stamp collecting, bridge or poker, cooking, writing, grief support, religion, painting, books, ancestry, movies, exercise...

Margaret's sisters tease her: "When did you become such a cleanliness nut?" Barbara is always saying to Margaret that she needs to do a YouTube tutorial on how to properly clean and teach her.  Yes, Margaret has become a cleaning machine. It helps too that her apartment in New York City is small, making cleaning a breeze. If only her late mother could see her now.  On the other hand, Barbara's mother was disappointed that Barbara wasn't a better cleaner. Barbara had little interest, perhaps, a reaction to her mother's intense interest and pride in having a spotless home. "We...