Who knows why some of us feel intellectually inferior? I am certainly not going to blame my mother and father for this, though they would sort of smile with a sense of surprise when I did anything above the norm. Achievement was appreciated, if not expected. Dropping out of college...

It was an odd and emotional week, with the return of Mad Men, and then the death of Annette Funicello. I think it's fair to say the '60s may officially be over.

The AMC series -- for those fanatics who find the clues where we can -- seems to have...

The only thing worse than aging -- is watching others do it.

Betty Friedan identified the rumblings of feminism as the Problem With No Name. I would submit that assessing one's aging process is the Judgment With No Name. This is the Boomers' national pastime as we watch films and...

I was talking with my friend Joanne in Los Angeles this week, as she was leaving for her condo in Palm Springs. I asked about the desert social life and she replied, "Well, let's say we have friends there who wouldn't be our friends here." Suzanne told me about the...

And here I thought my bingeing days were long behind me. Not since the requisite eating disorder in high school have I so often found myself in secret places, making up stories about my whereabouts, and feeling generally insatiable.

My name is Michele and I am a binge viewer.

Maybe it was just the particular media I happened to watch this week, but I have been thinking about chemistry. (No, not the kind I couldn't pass in high school.) But a different kind of chemistry. And what I am finding is that coupling among "mature" adults does not necessarily...

There is a great deal of attention right now on the Notre Dame linebacker caught up in the online girlfriend controversy. Was it love at first site?

I, of course, wondered if his situation could be related to women of a certain age.

No, I am not talking about...

Tis that time again.

Like everyone, I have my personal goals, but ours is a generation that saw itself as bigger and better than that. We were about selfless, but damned if we didn't settle for selfish.'We were about change, but damned if we aren't reluctantly accepting the next...

Rather than focusing on those things that made me feel my age this week-- sitting down at a restaurant and immediately spilling my drink, realizing Dustin Hoffman is now 75, writing lists of what I need to Google -- I am finding the pride behind the pain.

First, I am...

So what exactly is a role model? Is it someone we relate to, someone we aspire to be, someone we just greatly admire?

I have been pondering the question since being interviewed (here, Live) on the kickoff topic of whether the world needs, or even wants, a third Bridget Jones...

Whenever people ask my favorite year, I quickly respond: 1972. And I have George McGovern to thank for that.

In my early twenties and rabidly anti-war, I joined the McGovern cause early, while he fought off all those other Democrats whose names I can hardly recall. (Muskie cried, I think.)...

Just when I fear we are dumbed down to a hopeless degree, hope is restored.

Ah, the yins and the yangs. I saw a documentary last week called Me@thezoo, which centers on a lonely young man who physically emulates and verbally pleads for the privacy of Britney...

I finally figured out what I love most about Roger Federer, even more than his elegance and class on the tennis court: His wife isn't beautiful.

Have you noticed that every major male player in professional tennis has a supermodel-sized woman cheering and tearing in the stands?...

We've had LOL and FYI and BTW. Now, I submit LTS, as in "life's too short." Far from being a flip dismissal, it can, in fact, be a liberating force for those of us navigating the passage from midlife to beyond.

"One of the benefits of seeing...

When does one officially know midlife is a thing of the past? Some claim it is when your first child turns 40 or the first time you are called "Nana" or "Grammy." For others, it is when not one word can be read without glasses, or when they can't find...

I recently left New York City for two weeks of traveling -- sans family -- through parts of the West. As the journey began, I still needed my daily fix of newspapers and a hit of TV, but as the time went on, they became less important. I met some...

Like everyone else who was lucky enough to come into contact with Nora Ephron, I am recalling those moments today. I occasionally asked her for quotes for articles and used every single one, thank you. But it's the rare personal exchanges that I remember most vividly.

The...

I was struck by what 17-year-old Beau Hossler had to say during his impressive performance in the U.S. Open golf tournament last week. Before it began, he said his goal was simple: He wanted to make the cut. By the third day, as the high schooler found himself on par...

I know a man -- a highly successful one at that -- who is so fearful of rejection that he literally can't ask dinner guests if they want a drink. "Would you do it for me"? he pleaded one night, fearing the words "no thanks." Understand, this is a man...

So, in one day I heard that Harry's Law -- a show I enjoyed for its wit and intelligence as much as the fact that its lead character was a 63-year-old woman -- was being canceled, and I gave Girls on HBO one more chance. I say "ugh" to both.