As the youngest of three brothers, being grown up always seemed distant. My brothers, 12 and nine years older, were light-years ahead of me. They were so mature, smart and grown-up that they knew when somebody didn’t actually have their nose. I couldn’t wait to be just like them. One of my earliest memories, at […]

Health, as Merriam-Webster defines it, is “the condition of being well or free from disease.” Popular health magazines, however, appear to be more concerned with the tightness of your butt. Amy Keller Laird, editor-in-chief of Women’s Health, sensed from social media that her readers wanted more body positivity and less rigid depictions of beauty. So, […]

Instagram time is a daily ritual for many people in the design community who find inspiration and just plain entertainment from scrolling through endless vignettes, rooms and gardens. “Instagram is like having a wide-angle lens on culture today. It is a people connector through imagery,” says New York designer Charlotte Moss. She enjoys discovering “what […]

The dropping of the Times Square ball not only launches our personal New Year’s resolutions but can signal a fresh start for our four-pawed friends as well. Our dogs are very special to us and we are well aware of how they enrich our lives. They accompany us during the best of times and comfort […]

Bloody returns, prostitutes, flying cold cuts and haunted ovens: Local retail workers’ nightmares For many people who work in retail, the holidays are the busiest time for a job that even during slow periods can be challenging. Drilled down to its essence, the test of working retail can be summed up in five words: “The […]

On tour with the age-defying Carol Bailey String Band of Litchfield It’s the middle of a day on a Tuesday, but the Elks Lodge on Route 126 in Gardiner is rocking. The band is playing loud and the fans are into it. A few climb onto chairs to take pictures of the action. Others dance […]

What happened to the 1o people the Internet hated most in 2015?P Slate may have declared 2014 “the year of outrage,” but if you thought online discourse would mellow from that point – well, you were wildly mistaken. Scarcely a month went by in 2015 without the christening of some new “most hated” person: whether […]

CLEVELAND – My ex-boyfriend and I broke up almost exactly two years ago, and we’ve spoken only a handful of times since. But I can tell you exactly what he’s watching on Netflix. (“Friday Night Lights,” if you’re curious.) We now live 500 miles apart, but remain tethered to one another by technology, specifically a […]