One day a year, the children of working parents are publicly acknowledged and officially welcomed in the workplace with activities, speakers and sometimes a boxed lunch. But what about launching a similar effort acknowledging the obligations of workers with elder parents and allowing them a day with pay to stay...

Not even the bathrooms were spared; for years on the towel bars I placed alternating red and green washcloths boasting embroidered poinsettias and the word "joy" in green and red plaid letters.

Wreath on the front door, back door, basement door, bathroom window. A circle of foot-high,...

It's history repeating itself. It's history repeating itself. I said, it's history repeating itself.

OK, let's just say Paula Broadwell didn't see Fatal Attraction in 1987 when it first hit movie theaters. She was 14 years old. But Broadwell must have heard about it --...

In these final days before the presidential election, pollsters have asserted it is the 55 million single women in this country who will carry the victor to the White House. I was party to a coincidental intersection of two American icons -- single women leaders who remind us...

She is still my hero. And today she gave me goosebumps yet again.

Twenty-one years after I first wrote about her in a column for the Chicago Tribune, I listened to Anita Hill, author and law professor, author, advocate and whistle-blowing dragon-slayer, speak to a ballroom of...

In the media this week were several pairs of breasts belonging to the famous and the now infamous-- Adrienne, Kate, Rihanna, Kris-- as if each set was as important as all other critical breaking news on the globe. Apparently in the triage deadline discussions of newsworthiness, these functional, admirable assets...

This is not about winning a gold medal. It is about trying to win, and the people who believe that you can. It's a corny feel-good tale, but it's true. And one that could make you cry and smile all in the same minute.

You may have...

"S" and I drove 15 miles and paid $32 to park just so we did not see Magic Mike at the local theater where we could quite possibly -- God forbid -- see anyone we knew. Or anyone who knew our children, now grown up enough to be...

Unlike most of my peers in journalism school in the Watergate Era of the 1970s, I did not want to be like Carl Bernstein or Bob Woodward -- even though he was much better looking. I wanted to be like Carl Bernstein's wife.

I did not want to...

Now I feel like a liar.

Twice a week for 10 weeks I gear up to deliver confidence-surging lectures about talent, curiosity, flexibility and intelligent athleticism being the keys to a great writing career. This spring I aim to truthfully inspire my Magazine Storytelling class of 14 women and...

Inundated to the point of deluge about resolutions, predictions and trends for this new year, I do not want to add to the messy mix. But I do want to chime in to herald the need for more great ideas, personally and universally.

I want to help my students come...

Has social media marked the death of effective denial? Will texting, Twitter, Facebook, youtube and Skype serve as deterrents to unethical behavior?

Ask former Republican presidential hopeful Herman Cain if he believed text messages would end his bid for the White House. Ask Sharon Smalls,...

"You will have 'victim' on your name tag for the rest of your life."

She said it crisply, curtly. I imagine her intent was to perhaps save me from what she perceived as a career-ending move. She and I were friends from college, and I respected her personally and...

Given all of the hoopla around Breast Cancer awareness, it's easy to think when you're diagnosed that you will immediately be enveloped in a fluffy pink cloud of support where everyone and anyone you encounter urges you to endure, overcome, buck up, beat the odds and cheerily join in the...

I waited a few days to write this. Perhaps I should have waited longer. Maybe forever.

I don't want to appear in any way to diminish the cataclysmic grief and horror experienced by the children of 9/11, those who woke in the morning with in-tact families -- mothers and...

I spent my summer vacation.

While some of my friends and acquaintances, and even my sons, have rich tales of travels from California to China, Hungary to Rio de Janeiro, I spent only money. I spent thousands of dollars staying home and fixing stuff, much of it...

My pink vinyl bag has a laminated ID card on it with my alias: Mich The Masher. The bag fits my knee pads, elbow pads, wrist pads and mouth guard. The shiny black helmet (now I am wishing I bought the pink one) with the skull stickers goes in...

The American Dream has become a muddled enterprise. Tossed around in campaign rhetoric, some label it a political notion. Others connect it to financial prosperity and the equation of education plus job plus home-ownership. On a gaggle of television shows this summer, star-blinded aspirants see the dream as a forum...