When Rayouf Alhumedhi’s friends wanted to identify themselves to one another in a WhatsApp group chat, they didn’t rely on their names. Instead, each friend used an emoji. “My friends, who don’t wear the headscarf, they found something.” Alhumedhi said. “For me? I had to opt to not use an image of a woman wearing […]

Young Americans are less likely to be homeowners, car owners or parents than their predecessors, but they do lead in one category: Pets.Three-fourths of Americans in their 30s have dogs, while 51 percent have cats, according to a survey released by research firm Mintel. That compares to 50 percent of the overall population with dogs, […]

Authors give tips, picson the best way to play with your food Whoever said you shouldn’t play with your food took eating way too seriously. Bill and Claire Wurtzel employ the opposite approach, encouraging kids and their families to make mealtime fun by creating plate art in which scrambled eggs become birds, waffles become the […]

Natalie Hampton spent most of her 7th and 8th grade school years eating lunch alone.The new girl at an all-girls private school in Los Angeles, she became the target of a clique of “mean girls” who excluded her from parties, called her names and even physically assaulted her, she said. They told her she was […]

He had been driving for Uber for more than six months when a conversation with an old friend sparked the idea. Everyone that rode in his car had a story to tell, a unique life experience, some wisdom they’d picked up along the way.What if he could collect a slice of life from each of […]

Used-book dealer discovers letter in donated book The owner of a secondhand bookstore in a northern English market town was sorting through a pile of old books when an envelope fell from one. Inside was an undated letter and a faded photo of a woman holding a little girl on her lap. The letter was […]

My wife, Tish, and I have three kids, and making their school lunches fell to me. I’m a cartoonist, and I wanted to do something fancier than just write their names on the bags. But time didn’t permit; all each child got was a bag full of predictable food, with their name written on it […]

Flotation therapy allows you to leave your stress — and your arms and legs and ears and eyes — behind.  LEWISTON – Everything about the flotation therapy pod is inviting, at least on paper. The temperature of its water is a constant 93.5 degrees, the same as my skin. The water is dosed with 1,100 […]

A great variety of goldenrod is brightening up the back field and around the edges of the garden. Goldenrod is a sure sign that summer is being transformed into autumn. Close by, delicate, light-blue New England asters are also popping up everywhere. Although the calendar says autumn doesn’t officially arrive for a few more days, […]