On Tuesday night when Barack Obama was declared the winner, I was reminded of the toast my father gave at our wedding reception when I got remarried ten years ago. Quoting Samuel Johnson, he said, "A second marriage is the triumph of hope over experience."

With Obama as...

For the past few weeks I've immersed myself in all things W. I sat through the badly done but nonetheless unsettling Josh Brolin movie, which depicts Bush as someone who sought the presidency for two reasons: first, to prove to his father that he wasn't a total f--- up,...

When did celebration inflation raise Halloween up from being a rinky-dink deal for kids to a national holiday for adults? And why?

Maybe it fills the void left by the end of the World Series, encouraging fans to get off the couch and change out of their sweatpants.

Another thought:...

A recent house guest who hadn't seen our 3-year-old daughter -- or, more to the point, heard her -- since she became a full-fledged talker asked if "No" is her favorite word. "It's definitely one of them," I said. In fact, if you did a tag cloud for her,...

Whether or not Barack Obama topples John McCain on November 4 is still a matter of conjecture. But during debate No. 3 the GOP candidate's use of the word "proud" in regard to Sarah Palin -- i.e. "I'm proud of her" and "I can't tell how proud I am of...

Back in the pre-convention calm of August, I sat on the beach on Cape Cod, my head buried not just in sand but in a suitcase-size volume* of War and Peace. Since Labor Day, Tolstoy's fictional account of 19th-century Russia, though a soap opera the likes of which HBO has...

You might be surprised to find out how much Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin and I have in common.

She's in her 40s and I'm in my 40s.

She's a hockey mom and I'm a mom who's been to a hockey game.

Asked by ABC's Charlie Gibson whether...