Yes, you have to be nice to your mother on Mother’s Day. Think of all those diapers she changed, after all. And what about that time you threw up on her lap in the car?   Fortunately, being nice to her doesn’t necessarily mean you have to talk to her. Here are five Mother’s Day activities you can share – in silence:   1. Visit a spa together for a massage or facial. Ask for separate rooms, “for a more relaxing, refreshing experience for you both.”  

Not long ago, a woman in the Netherlands (where I now live) remarked to me, "You don't look American. "Why's that?" I asked her."You're not fat," she said. It did not occur to me until later that day that she herself carried a good forty pounds more than she really needed.

Quite a few year ago, my two closest friends left New York City to begin new lives in distant, faraway lands: one in Paris, the other all the way in Texas. About a year later, I thought I’d take a long weekend away to visit one or the other of them, and began researching fares. As it turned out, a flight from New York to Paris cost half of what one to Texas would have cost me, and so off to the banks of the Seine I went. Those days, I discovered this morning, are over.

Call me the anti-Oprah. Or maybe I’m just a dinosaur, and grouchy. But while everyone else is walking around learning to feel good, to stop being so hard on themselves, or ever feeling guilty or repentant or ashamed no matter what they do, to be more self-forgiving, I’m here thinking, “where’s responsibility?” Has responsibility become passé, defunct, sunk into the junkyards of civilizations past along with videotapes and telegrams and Walkman? Have we gone from “I’m Okay, You’re Okay” to “I’m Okay, I’m Okay, You’re the F***ing Problem”?

I don’t remember where it was I read it – I think it may have been a novel I’ve since otherwise forgotten – but somewhere I came across the magical power of rubber bands, for which I am forever grateful. The magical rubber band trick is simply this: wear a rubber band around your wrist and thwack it when you want to do whatever it is you know you shouldn’t: buy the doughnut, call the guy, smoke the cigarette. Conversely, you can use it to jolt yourself out of procrastination and complacency: Start your homework NOW <thwack>!  Get to the gym NOW!

You’ve been so good. You’ve cut out sugar, lowered your fat intake, reduced calories, started e

Oh! The stress! The job stress. The dating stre

Security regulations – especially the ban on liquids on board airplanes --- have made packing for a

For those who need reminding that Valentine’s Day isn’t only wine and roses, a list of the better po