Feel festive, cheerful and blessed around the holidays--but then slide into the doldrums in the first weeks of the New Year? Financially illiterate and then suddenly started blogging about how the ups and downs of the stock market impacted you emotionally? Felt patriotic--or depressed--when Obama was elected?

Oh yes,...

In the weeks since the tragedies at the James Ray self-help retreat in Sedona, Arizona, I've written pieces for The Washington Post and The Huffington Post documenting the social psychology of the self-improvement industry. It's criminal how a motivational leader so misled people seeking personal transformation.

I admit it: I have a friend that I'm afraid to totally ditch for fear she'll do something nasty to me.

OK, now your turn: You have toxic friendships, I know you do. It's time to admit it--and figure out why.

Maybe you have a friend who only wants...

Two people are dead and dozens more were hospitalized Thursday after collapsing from the heat of a sweat lodge at a James Ray spiritual retreat in Sedona, Arizona.

The sweat lodge experience was the culmination of a five-day nearly $10,000 “Spiritual Warrior Event” advertised as a retreat...

This morning I appeared LIVE on "The Early Show" on CBS talking about dating in the economic downturn. It was a short segment - watch it here - so here are some of the tidbits of advice I would have shared if there had been more time.

Here are...

Calling all HuffPo readers: Remember that adorable priest Maureen Dowd featured in her column? The one who charmed us on the Today show last summer? He was full of dating and marriage advice -- and now he's writing a book. Want to be a part of it? Read on...

The...

'Tis the season for family, faith, fellowship -- and fat.

As families gather around buffet tables smothered with food on Thanksgiving, religious diet groups caution us God might not approve of that second piece of pie. Yes, that's right. The omnipresent world of wonder diets and slim-down regimes now has...

College classes are back in session, and with any luck, my students will learn basics of sociology, be sparked with a lifelong academic curiosity and not vomit in my 8:30 Friday morning lecture.

This year the University of Iowa is encouraging departments to offer early-morning Friday...

Need something to give to the husband or father who has everything, likes to read a few pages of something silly in the bathroom and is secretly obsessed with Nostradamus specials on The History Channel? Apocalypse How: Turn the End-Times into the Best Times should be your pick for...

For three months I lied to my husband. I snuck around behind his back and I emailed and talked on the phone with first one -- and then up to a dozen -- different men. I had more than 200 emails secreted away in a folder. When my husband would...

Weather is serious business in the Midwest. Talking about below-zero temperatures, flooding, tornados or the upcoming blizzard isn't empty small-talk: It's a life-or-death struggle against the elements out here--or at least the last four months of dire "urgent alerts" from the National Weather Service has me convinced that's true.

My...

Caucusing can be confusing. But I was giddy all day about this opportunity to make a difference and shape national politics. I mean, how complicated can caucusing really be?

As a born-and-raised New Yorker, I'm new here, but I understand that Iowans have a big responsibility to serve as a...

I'm a born-and-raised New Yorker. I don't make eye contact with strangers as I walk down the street. I lived in the same apartment building for decades, and couldn't tell you my neighbor's names. And when it came to voting, I'd usually cast an absentee ballot, in the privacy of...

Single women are quaking in their trendy boots today -- all because of yet another screed by Maureen Dowd. According to today's New York Times column, men are intimidated by smart women. To win the American male vote, Hillary Clinton should dumb herself down. Oh, and successful women won't...

Modern business plan for a young artist in New York City:

1. Find out where the cool kids hang out, and get yourself into the best nightclubs in town

2. Drink, dance and party like a rock star

3. If you have done #1 and #2 in the correct nightclub,...

Okay, guys, you're standing at the altar and you have two choices: Bride #1 has a high-school degree. Bride #2 has a graduate-school degree. Which one do you pick?

(Wait, you say: What do these women look like? Is one nice, and one an evil bitch? This is no time...

I'm getting married in two weeks, and reading Rebecca Mead's new book One Perfect Day: The Selling of the American Wedding was a necessary act of penance.

Mead, a writer for The New Yorker describes the evolution of simple family nuptials into the $161 billion consumer bonanza...