ST. PAUL, Minn. -- St. Paul’s Como Park Zoo announced some unhappy news Thursday morning that triggered a social media outpouring of nostalgia-tinged sadness.

It wasn’t the death of a beloved animal or the closing of a popular exhibit.

The bad news: The Mold-A-Rama machines are going to be removed.

The zoo’s four coin-operated automated...Read more

Dear Kid Whisperer,

We have a community water park that we go to multiple times per week. We usually bring at least one of my 10-year-old daughter’s friends from the neighborhood. The place is pretty big, so we ask that every hour, my daughter and her friend(s) check back with us so they can get a drink of water and some shade. This helps us ...Read more

The parkway garden sits on a commercial stretch of Glendale's Brand Boulevard. It's a modest patch of native plants, hardly visible from the road.

But this baby plot is the pride and joy of the tight-knit group of green thumbers who tend to it. They gather there every last Sunday of the month for Club Gay Gardens, a garden club catering to ...Read more

Q. My 14-year-old son saved his money and bought an e-bike at his mother’s home. The stipulation was that he always wears a helmet when riding it. Two of my friends called me recently and told me that my son has been spotted riding around the neighborhood without a helmet. They sent me pictures. His mother isn’t doing anything about it. What...Read more

Millions of children and homeowners will soon be engaging an ancient and bizarre ritual.

Children, dressed in fantastic costumes, will besiege homeowners and demand free candy. The homeowners will typically accede to their demands.

But like any complex social compact, there can be a right and a wrong way of doing it, an unspoken code of ...Read more

Pity the evil queen in "Snow White" asking the magic mirror who was the fairest of all, waiting anxiously for the reply. Today, all the queen would need to do is upload an image of herself to an AI beauty analysis app and wait 10 seconds for the results.

Beauty analysis apps score your face “plain, pretty or gorgeous,” or “attractive, ...Read more

If it feels harder to get ahead right now, that’s because it is. Many Americans are navigating a “worst-of-both-worlds” economy: a cooling job market on one side and stubborn inflation on the other.

Prices aren’t rising as rapidly as they once were when the U.S. economy roared back after the coronavirus pandemic. Yet, the largest share...Read more

If there is one thing I don’t want to get off my chest, it’s hair, which is usually ripped out by the roots when I have a medical procedure.

What I do want to get off my chest is an aortic aneurysm, which is why I recently had a CAT scan, at the end of which my chest hair was — sorry, you guessed wrong — not ripped out by the roots ...Read more

When social media first began attracting young people more than two decades ago, parents worried about whether their children were chatting with nefarious strangers.

Now, with the emergence of AI chatbots, parents should worry if their children are being seduced by equally dangerous computer programs.

The use of AI chatbots as “friends” is...Read more

The day after President Donald Trump’s administration began demolishing the East Wing of the White House to make way for a massive 90,000-square-foot ballroom, I sat in a room full of people witnessing what happens when we build, rather than tear down.

Structures. Communities. People. Imaginations.

The Chicago Public Library Foundation held ...Read more

ANOKA, Minn. -- On a chilly April morning, Travis Gienger took his first gamble of the 2025 season. The world-champion giant-pumpkin grower typically starts his seeds indoors. But this year he was out in his backyard, crawling in the dirt to sow them directly.

While some pumpkins as big as Mini Coopers are raised in climate-controlled, C02-...Read more

When Jennifer Trujillo first heard her middle school band students say "six, seven" in class and explode with glee, she sought out the advice of an expert — her 15-year-old daughter.

Trujillo wanted to know what, exactly, her students were saying when they'd repeat the numbers and moved their hands in a juggling motion. Her daughter gave her ...Read more

It is spring in Australia and New Zealand and looks like it in Columbus, Georgia, thanks to a little planting in early September. One plant that is catching my eye every day is the award-winning Superbena Royale Plum Wine verbena.

The last time I gave this plant any press was when magenta was the Pantone Color of the Year. It is a color that ...Read more

What kind of person can coax shy, diffident Minnesotans to boogie down on the dance floor?

He’s a pirate and he calls himself Jimi Jimi Jimi, the Polka Dancing Pirate.

If there’s an Oktoberfest event at the Germanic-American Institute in St. Paul, a polka mass at St. Boniface Catholic Church in northeast Minneapolis or a taping of a public...Read more

Q. I have no idea how to co-parent when my ex is such a jerk and is always telling me how I screwed up: I can’t parent the kids right. I don’t cook nutritious food. I drink too much.

I’m so beaten down I don’t want to talk to them about anything, let alone consult them about our kids. What’s good ex-etiquette?

A. My first thought ...Read more

Dear Kid Whisperer,

I would appreciate some guidance. You trained teachers at my school in Behavioral Leadership. I think the strategies are great, but I have a few concerns with how some things are being implemented and would LOVE some advice and direction. I'm specifically looking for guidance on Delayed Learning Opportunities (DLOs) as it is...Read more

KESHENA, Wis. — Rihauna Fuentez runs her fingers along the tangled wires, tracing their course over a wooden panel and into an electrical box. The 20-year-old, with mussed rainbow hair and a nose piercing, pounds her hammer with precision.

She surveys her work beside her peers. “I’m just trying to figure out which color wire I put through...Read more

We accidentally left for our vacation in Maine a day early. I take full credit — or blame — it depends on who tells the story. There’s nothing wrong with leaving a day early, except that when you get there you won’t have a place to stay.

A quick online search landed us a reservation just outside a picturesque New England town we’d ...Read more

LOS ANGELES -- I am standing on what looks like a cramped, dark city street. A tavern is around a corner, a police department in front of me. And I'm lost.

That's when I hear a whisper. "Psst." I turn, and see a puppet peeping his head out of a secret opening of a door. Over here," he says, and I find myself leaning in to listen to this furry, ...Read more

Even though I have enough saved for early retirement, I still worry. As someone with lifelong chronic conditions, I know all too well how healthcare costs can creep up, even when everything else seems under control.

Medical debt is one of the sneakiest ways financial stress shows up in people’s lives. According to Kaiser Family Foundation’...Read more