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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I am entirely happy with my boyfriend of two years. He makes me feel loved and confident. But (there’s always a “but”) I really want to live together and make a home with him. He refuses. He says he needs his space and moving in together is why his previous relationships fell apart. I respect […]
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Who, in a million years, ever thought that the ridesharing idea would fly? You’re going to pay total strangers to drive you around in their own cars? Really now? Well, yes. Services like Lyft and Uber may have decimated the taxi industry and clogged big-city streets with cars. But they also allow millions of drivers […]
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