CHICAGO -- With a glass of white wine in one hand and a printed spreadsheet of names and addresses of around 50 lawmakers in the other, Allyssa Bujdoso was setting up for a crowd at Deep Red Wine Merchant in Avondale. A guy with a sign reading “(Expletive) Trump” rushed through the door, handed over a sheet of stamps and then hurried away.

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The Garden Guy surfed the web and stumbled across a photo you most likely have never seen. It featured three Proven Winners National Plants of the Year in a wonderful combination. The flowers were the Safari Dusk Jamesbrittenia or South African phlox, which is the "Annual of the Year." The combo also featured Supertunia Hoopla Vivid Orchid (the ...Read more

LOS ANGELES -- It is not just any Tuesday.

It is 9 p.m. on a dreary night in Shadow Hills, just miles away from the lush foothills of the Verdugo Mountains. The delicate pitter-patter of a drum's cymbal is the only sound to break through the thick brick wall of the obscure performance venue, Sun Space, and reach the wide, desolate Sunland ...Read more

In last week’s column, I wrote about traveling to Warsaw for the international Literacy for Democracy conference. What I failed to mention was that I left my beloved black leather jacket behind.

Five minutes into my Uber ride to the Warsaw airport, I realized it was missing. I quickly emailed the conference organizers and asked if they could ...Read more

Black and white, right and wrong, cut and dried. I know how tempting it is to look for a “rule” or a quick answer in dating. Leave or stay? Unmatch or meet? But most things in life are not answered so simply. This week, we have several dating questions looking for a back-and-white answer … and I’m here to show the shades of gray.

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HARTFORD, Conn. -- A Glastonbury, Connecticut, couple with a now-famous pig has brought their five pigs throughout the state and further to many schools, nursing homes, birthdays and private events over the last four years.

It’s for their business Gilbert the Party Pig which, despite delighting people everywhere, is probably most famous for ...Read more

He came.

He saw.

He climbed.

And in so doing, the life of Dan Goodwin would never be the same, and he would find a firm spot on any list of important Chicago figures, a colorful and compelling character in this city that has hosted more than its share of swashbucklers and lunatics.

Those of us who remember Goodwin are older now, but it doesn...Read more

Dear Anna,

I’ve been dating my boyfriend for about four months, and things have been going really well — or at least I thought they were. He’s always been really thoughtful over text, sending me these sweet, articulate messages about how he’s feeling or why he appreciates me. I’m not the most eloquent person, so I’ve always been a ...Read more

Q. My ex showed up at my birthday party with roses and wanting to get back together. I don’t want to. He cheated, I don’t trust him and I am done. We have a child and I am afraid if I don’t take him seriously, he will withhold my child and try to get sole custody. What’s good ex-etiquette?

A. Your co-parent crossed a boundary by ...Read more

Dear Kid Whisperer,

The words “I know!” are going to make me lose my mind. My 16-year-old says this every time he’s leaving the house and I remind him to not forget something like his backpack or swimsuit or wallet. I know that he does not “know”: If I didn’t remind him, he would forget. He used to simply state these words, but now ...Read more

I grew up when people wrote letters in longhand on pretty stationery. Going to the mailbox and finding a letter was a whiff of Christmas morning.

Many Sunday nights, as a young girl, I wrote to a great aunt who was a retired schoolteacher. You mind your p’s and q’s when you write to a teacher. She wrote wonderful letters back, often with ...Read more

When Benyamin Bamburac got into the car Friday to graduate from Lewis University, he didn’t get behind the wheel. Because he’s not old enough to drive.

At 15, Benyamin, of Romeoville, Illinois, crossed the graduation stage as the university’s youngest student ever to receive his master’s degree from the school in its nearly 100-year ...Read more

The only thing that left me cold when my wife and I got a new refrigerator is that it didn’t come stocked with beer.

But the cool part is that it doesn’t freeze food, as our old fridge did. And it is designed in such a convenient way that I can now find what I am looking for — pickles, mustard or, yes, beer — which I could never do ...Read more

LOS ANGELES — Soon, the sounds of boards being kicked and mannequins being punched will echo from a former Pilates studio on Palisades Drive.

Soon, karate students — toddlers, teens and grown-ups — will fill the space, heeding the shouted instructions of their silver-haired sensei, Gerry Blanck.

That's because, soon, the Gerry Blanck ...Read more

Starting in July, Medicare beneficiaries may be able to get a GLP-1 prescription for weight loss for $50 a month. It’s a notable shift for Medicare, which has long been barred from covering weight loss treatments.

The drugs, such as Wegovy and Zepbound, are effective but can be expensive without insurance coverage. They’re available in ...Read more

LOS ANGELES — Light and Los Angeles are intrinsically linked.

It's a light that elicits emotion and demands reaction. Filmmaker David Lynch said L.A.'s "muted golden sunshine" was the reason filmmakers flocked here. In the New Yorker, the writer Lawrence Weschler rhapsodized about the soft glow in the air here, day and night. When watching O....Read more

I recently traveled to Warsaw, Poland, for the fourth annual international Literacy for Democracy conference. Organized by the Polish nonprofit Universal Reading Foundation, the conference advocates for programs and policies that promote literacy across all ages, arguing that literacy isn’t just a cultural matter, but a survival factor for ...Read more

MINNEAPOLIS — Three Minnesota influencers recently experienced the fickle nature of internet fame. One day, they were garnering lots of likes. The next, they were crushed under a digital dogpile.

John O’Sullivan, Josh Liljenquist and so-called “Minnesota Angry Man” Chris Ostroushko each established their fandom in very different ways: ...Read more

As gardeners we think about flora and fauna, but I would like to suggest one more thing. And that is fragrance. Fragrance is one of those memory makers. Memories for the children who grow up with garden fragrance and for spouses celebrating anniversaries. It’s not just the memories of the flowers' beauty, but also that Mom and Dad grew them ...Read more

LOS ANGELES — Little League baseball wasn't necessarily top of mind for Altadena after the Eaton fire destroyed their town.

But as springtime rolled around a few weeks after the fire, the idea of a season without baseball felt like another blow the community simply couldn't take. Another loss their children shouldn't have to bear.

So the ...Read more