There’s nothing like doing a story about email to make you feel really, really insecure about your own digital correspondence. While I’ve spent plenty of time worrying about whether to close with a “most defiantly yours” or an “xoxo,” that was where my thoughts about signing emails stopped (and I usually chose “best”). Signature blocks […]
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My boyfriend of four years is everything I want in a man — intelligent, kind and adventurous — and I would really like to get married. We’ve discussed it several times. He’s made it clear that he loves me, but is not interested in thinking about the future because the concept of his mortality terrifies […]
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My sister is in her 50s. She suffers (and has benefited) from autism spectrum disorder. It’s given her brilliance at the expense of social functioning. Sadly, she is not aware of her A.S.D. or formally diagnosed. But she gets furious if anyone challenges her; she is unable to forgive small slights and doesn’t perceive other […]
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In the afterglow of a wedding or honeymoon, sitting down to write personalized thank-you notes can be a daunting, and often dreaded, task for most couples, especially those couples who have had large weddings. But do not fret. Etiquette experts and professional card writers have some advice for making the process a little easier. First, […]
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Two decades ago the impeachment of a president hinged on what the meaning of “is” is. This time it may depend on the semantics of “I would like you to do us a favor though.” It would be bad enough if President Trump had merely expressed a desire to the Ukrainian president, Volodymyr Zelensky, that […]
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THE LIGHTS ARE dim, set to eternal dusk. You enter and blink. If there are booths, they should be plush: Naugahyde or brocade limned in gold. Napkins are linen, tables likely cloaked. Maybe a Persian rug lies underfoot. Taxidermied animal heads peer from the walls. From your seat, you might see a living white-tailed deer […]
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Every day around the world, an estimated three billion people go to work and 2.9 billion of them avoid making small talk with their co-workers once they get there. Their avoidance strategies vary. Some will keep their headphones in and their eyes low. Others will pantomime receiving an urgent message that requires an immediate, brow-furrowing, […]
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It was 2015 when I first began to grapple with tipping when ordering at a counter-service restaurant. I had ordered a fried chicken sandwich at Pine State Biscuits in Portland, Ore., and a friend chided me for not tacking on a gratuity to my credit card payment. I hadn’t even considered it. “They’re working hard […]
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I met my best friend in grade school. We lived in New York at the same time and both got married in our 40s; we bought second homes in the same town. During the recession of 2008, she and her husband suffered greatly. They had to move to a (nice) home in a less expensive […]
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We are three college students living at home for the summer, and we’ve planned a road trip to the Grand Canyon. One of us has a summer job working for the mother of another of us. The mother told our employee friend that she was uncomfortable with three “wimpy girls” camping alone. (The campsite bills […]
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My friend does missionary work in a developing country. She’s in her 60s. She took up with a local man, and now her Facebook page is filled with heart-shaped photos of them and proclamations of how he’s changed her life. She mentioned an age difference, but wouldn’t say how old he is. (He looks to […]
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A little boy sees a bald man in the store. “Mommy, look! That man has no hair!” he says. His mother grabs his arm and whispers urgently: “Be quiet! He might hear you!” The boy looks at his mother, puzzled. “Doesn’t he know?” There’s a lot going on in that old joke — about children […]
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I met my step-grandmother (the mother of my stepmom) when I was 4. She didn’t have any other grandchildren at the time, and I thought she considered me family. But 14 and 11 years ago, when my stepmother’s daughters were born, it became clear that I was a second-class grandchild. It didn’t help matters when […]
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My 12-year-old daughter had a sticker on her water bottle with a quote from Dr. Seuss: “You have brains in your head. You have feet in your shoes. You can steer yourself any direction you choose.” A classmate told her the sticker was racist because many people can’t choose what they want to do because […]
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My girlfriend and I have decided we’d like to get engaged. Before we do, I want to ask her parents’ permission — not because she belongs to them. I just think it’s polite and would start our relationship on the right note. I would also like to do this in person. But my girlfriend wants […]
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LONDON — The Rialto Bridge in Venice, the oldest of the four structures spanning the Grand Canal in the Italian city, has seen it all. But the sight of two German backpackers setting up a travel stove to make their morning coffee on the steps of the 400-year-old monument was too much for a local […]
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I am a teenage boy, and I have a dispute with my mom. She has tattoos all over her arms and back, and they’re not particularly nice ones. I’d call them R-rated. My friends think she’s weird, and they’ve made remarks to me about the tattoos. I’ve asked her to cover them up when my […]
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My husband’s brother died in his 30s, eight years ago, leaving a wife and 5-year-old son. Ever since, my husband visits his nephew, without fail, one night a week for a couple of hours. (The boy is great and doing well.) Meanwhile, we have two kids in elementary school, and my husband never gives them […]
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Humphrey Bogart had a way with life’s little vices. When he bought you a drink, the critic Kenneth Tynan recalled, he wouldn’t just pass it across — “he’d take me by the wrist and screw the glass into my hand as if it was a lamp socket.” Bogart’s manner with a cigarette was so vivid […]
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I am a single woman who bought a house next to a small apartment building. The owner of the building visits several times a week. Every time he comes, he knocks on my door to chat or request needless access to my yard (to cut tree limbs that could easily be cut from his side, […]
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Thanks to the draft, I served as a combat medic in Vietnam when I was 19. Though I was in many precarious situations (I was shot at and stepped on a land mine that didn’t explode), I came home safe. When I did, my father told me he’d taken a life insurance policy on me […]
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My girlfriend and I have been dating for six months. (We’re in college.) It’s super awesome! Just one problem: Her ex-boyfriend still texts all the time. Things like: “We’re going to end up together” and “I still love you.” She tells me not to worry; she’s committed to me. But it bothers me that she […]
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On a long car ride, I caught my father-in-law using a gay dating app. I couldn’t believe my eyes! I was sitting diagonally behind him in the car. My husband was driving, and my mother-in-law was in the front passenger seat. My elementary-school-aged kids were also in the vehicle. He was having conversations with various […]
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