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

PHILADELPHIA -- McGillin’s Olde Ale House, the 166-year-old pub in Center City long owned by the same family, has determined that being a matchmaker is a strategic advantage in a crowded industry.

Of course they serve draft beer, Philly cheesesteaks, and wings — but the bar has leaned especially hard into being, in its own description, the ...Read more

LOS ANGELES -- The donkeys are pissed off. Put upon, out of work and victims of decades-long systemic abuse, it's time, they have decided, to protest.

The donkeys, metaphorically, are us.

At least that's the premise of "asses.masses," a video game played by and for a live audience. It's theater for the post-Twitch age, performance art for ...Read more

When you’re in a committed relationship, you unavoidably merge at least some aspects of your financial lives. However, that doesn’t mean you have to combine all of your accounts. In fact, most Americans don’t.

Most couples in committed relationships (62%) keep at least some financial accounts in their name only, according to new Bankrate ...Read more

Dear Anna,

I’ve (36-year-old female) been seeing a new guy (34) for about six weeks — we’ve been on six dates, things are going really well and there’s clearly mutual interest, but we haven’t had the “what are we” conversation yet. Now Valentine’s Day is coming up and I’m completely lost. Do I acknowledge it? Plan something? ...Read more

Q: My child comes home from her other parent's house with stories that sound absolutely ridiculous. I don't want to dismiss what she tells me, but I also don't know what's true, what's exaggerated and what might be made-up. How am I supposed to sort through that without overreacting? What's good ex-etiquette here?

A: When children live in two ...Read more

I was puzzled when the husband announced he was going to burp the house. I asked if he thought it would need a diaper change, too.

“You know, burp the house,” he said with an air of disbelief.

I didn’t know. I couldn’t get my head around patting a two-story house on the back.

He said burping a house is based on the German practice of ...Read more

Dear Kid Whisperer,

My daughter is 12. She has always been a whiner. More accurately, she used to whine, and now she yells. Her mother and I have become very good at shielding her from seeing stuff she wants so that we can avoid these situations. We try to avoid taking her to stores (including the grocery store) where she might want things, for...Read more

Sometimes a boy just likes to feel pretty. That’s why two of my granddaughters recently gave me a beauty treatment at their very own spa and salon.

And I can count on the fingers of two hands how much it cost to be the envy of everyone at an evening gathering where my bright red nails made me the life of the party.

My day of geezer ...Read more

While preparing her four sons to take a dream family vacation in the Caribbean last month, Carolyn Piro carefully reviewed every detail to get them ready.

She also contacted the Royal Caribbean cruise line about accommodations for her children, because her oldest, Sean Curran, has autism, and two other sons also have developmental disabilities....Read more