Dear Anna,

My girlfriend and I (both mid-30s, both queer women) have been together for almost two years, and our relationship is solid — we communicate well, trust each other and have a great sex life. Recently, we’ve been talking about the possibility of having a threesome. Neither of us has done this before, and we’re both genuinely ...Read more

CHICAGO -- Bill Rosales had struggled for months to ask for help by the time he got a call from a high school friend. The Chicago firefighter desperately needed a kidney transplant to treat a rare genetic disorder.

He hadn’t spoken much in several years to the friend, Jason Fuggiti, who also happens to be a firefighter in the southwest ...Read more

SAN DIEGO — She was already a poet, she just didn’t realize it. Sunny Rey Azzarito was in the fourth grade and struggling a bit in school when her teacher looked at one of her assignments and saw creativity where someone else may have chosen criticism.

“I have audio processing disorder, so it’s kind of like a cousin of dyslexia, and it ...Read more

LOS ANGELES — Admission: I suffer from eyestrain. Even right this very second. As a reporter working on a computer more than eight hours most days, my eyes often feel fatigued and itchy by evening.

I'm not alone: More than half of the U.S. population lives with computer vision syndrome, also known as digital eyestrain, and nearly 16.4 million...Read more

SACRAMENTO, Calif. — Ownership of a tortoise, like life itself, has its downsides. Mona Heflin knows both well.

Slim Shady, her roughly 70-pound, 22-year-old sulcata tortoise, farts loudly, sometimes knocks her down and has forced her to find him after absconding in her North Highlands neighborhood when her front gate was left open. Still, ...Read more

The National Garden Bureau has chosen 2026 to be the Year of the Sedum. It is always the year of the sedum at The Garden Guy’s house. As I pulled photos for this column, I was stunned by the beauty, and in this case, it is Lemon Coral sedum.

I quickly came up with 30 photos, which is about 25 too many, but I’ll submit around 9 and see what ...Read more

Writing an online dating profile can be daunting, and it’s out of a lot of people’s comfort zones. We’re taught not to brag, but isn’t that what online dating is — a chance to showcase who you are? Yes and no.

Talking about yourself is hard — your hobbies and interests and a little background at a minimum. Plus elements of your ...Read more

MINNEAPOLIS — She was a young coyote, healthy and stout, with thick auburn fur so vibrant it reflected off the snow.

He was a biologist, holding a tranquilizer, who had been trying for a few years to trap and collar a carnivore near this particular St. Paul backyard, just a few blocks from Selby Avenue, amid all the homes and traffic, the ...Read more

SEATTLE — At the water's edge, Pastor Mary Elise Scott led a group in prayer for a safe and bountiful fishing season.

Guide and protect David Christensen, his crew, and all who fish the North Pacific waters," Scott said Sunday afternoon at Fishermen's Terminal in Seattle.

Christensen then raised a handmade religious pennant on his boat, Gjø...Read more

I love a clean car — no trash on the floor, no empty plastic water bottles rolling around, no fossilized fries smashed into floor mats. A clean car makes me happy.

Sometimes, if the car is clean on the inside and the outside, I’m so happy I throw it in park at red lights and car dance like crazy.

Not really. But I’m car dancing on the ...Read more

Q. I just got married to a man with three children. Their mother died two years ago, and we have bonded quite well. Problem is the kids' grandmother -- the children's mother's mother -- seems very jealous and undermines things that I do. She will make appointments for outings directly with the kids that I know nothing about. Or she will show up ...Read more

Dear Kid Whisperer,

Another teacher at my school recently loaned me a copy of "The Classroom Behavior Manual." Wow! I just read through the entire book yesterday! This book is speaking directly about my school's student population. I teach at the middle school in our city with the lowest socioeconomic demographic and the highest numbers of ...Read more

SACRAMENTO, Calif. — “You don’t see a pig on a leash every day with a hat on,” Mina Alali said as her potbelly pig wearing a colorful propeller hat tugged at her skirt, hoping to receive a handful of oats.

The propeller hat has become a signature look for the pig — a 4-year-old Vietnamese potbelly named Merlin — who has more than 1 ...Read more

It does my heart good to know that my heart is in the right place (right now it’s in my office, where I am, too) and that I don’t need open-heart surgery.

That’s why I was happy to have a heart-to-heart talk with a very nice ultrasound technician named Emily, who gave me an echocardiogram. It showed, among other things, that I am able to ...Read more

CHICAGO -- When Joseph Slajchert first bought a workers cottage at 29th and Emerald, the automobile was on its way to replace the horse and buggy.

But it wasn’t quite there yet.

The year was 1910. A black-and-white photo from around that time in Bridgeport shows five children wearing their Sunday best on the front steps, the boys in dapper ...Read more

It is indeed a Dandy Man, but let me explain.

Tim Wood, known by many as "The Plant Hunter," made some comments on LinkedIn. It was regarding the Dandy Man Color Wheel rhododendron. He said it was a rhododendron hyperythrum hybrid. Why is that important? It gives the plant disease resistance, particularly to rhizoctonia. It also gives it ...Read more

MINNEAPOLIS -- Minnesota is pushing to build a diverse teacher workforce to better match its student demographics, with the goal of increasing the number of teachers of color by 2% per year.

That pursuit now faces fresh challenges, with the Trump administration targeting diversity and equity initiatives, and the state being three years removed ...Read more

I see the same posts and clips you do, the ones saying the president of the United States has dementia.

They tick off the tell-tale signs. They call for the 25th Amendment to be invoked. They may be right, though diagnosing from a distance never feels helpful or humane to me. Especially for the stigma it leaves on folks truly living with a ...Read more

When I saw my parents recently, I thought it would be fun, both as a dating coach and as their daughter, to ask them about how they met and how their relationship progressed. I always knew some details, but I didn’t know the full story. March 16 marked their 46th wedding anniversary, so I would like to give tribute to them in this article.

...Read more

PHILADELPHIA -- In November 2023, Henry “Hank” McNeil Jr. had a problem.

He was buying something new for his 8,806 square-foot Rittenhouse Square townhouse’s dining room that would displace the family Christmas tree.

He called Jake Quinn, his friend and real estate manager, at 11 p.m.

The tree, the men decided after much deliberation, ...Read more