If you're American, you may not be familiar with Kinder Surprise eggs, an Italian candy product that is not sold in the U.S. because of a 1938 law prohibiting putting non-edible things inside of food.

Or maybe you recently discovered these eggs through the powerful and viral...

Even if you don't know what a hackathon or a Startup Weekend is, you've surely heard of Top Chef. The idea is the same: throw a bunch of talented and driven strangers together, apply extreme pressure, and watch magic happen. I watch Top Chef here in...

The Shapers are coming. We can't know their intentions for sure, but humans are already taking sides. Those who call themselves Enlightened (because the Shapers have promised to enlighten us), are doing everything they can to help them enter our world through portals that are invisible to the naked eye....

You know how you find it simultaneously sad and annoying when you're in a long line at the grocery store and a little old lady painstakingly takes out her checkbook and pen, painstakingly writes a check and sloooowly tears it out and hands it to the cashier, who then struggles...

There are potlucks and there are potlucks. At the institutional kind, you're breaking your fork on the lasagna and trying to keep it -- and the "Chinese" chicken salad and something crunchy suspended in Jell-O -- from sliding off your soggy paper plate.

Then there are the potlucks you have...

I just spent three exciting days as an official blogger for LeWeb, Europe's largest tech conference. As a tech blogger and entrepreneur, I look forward to LeWeb, which is held in Paris every December, as much as I ever did to Christmas as a kid. The conference gathers a global...

This is the story of a French girl named Fany who one day sent an email to about 50 girlfriends and three years later had 800,000 subscribers to her My Little Paris e-mail newsletter and the crème de la crème of French luxury brands bending over backwards to reach her...

Online merchants and social platforms are set up to define you by the things you like, the things you buy, the things you want. In their world, there's a lot of talk about driving traffic, driving sales, driving engagement. You know what else you drive? Cattle.

But we are about...

I don't know about you, but the presidential campaigns in France (where I live) and the U.S. have given me a severe case of campaign poisoning. All that meanness and greed and selfishness is just toxic.

If you've been suffering too, I have a suggestion: to lift your spirits, celebrate...

I love postcards. I don't collect them, but I always seem to have a few stuck to the fridge and the file cabinet. When I was about 11, I got a chain letter that promised me thousands of postcards from all over the world. (This was in the early 70s, before...

After reading my recent post How Twitter Became My Morning Paper, someone asked me (through Twitter) why I have multiple Twitter accounts instead of just using the Twitter list function. The answer was too long for a tweet! So here goes, for anyone who's interested.

First, it's important...

"Are you on Twitter?"

If your answer is "No," then this is for you. And if you're over 45, chances are that's your answer. But before you write off Twitter as a time suck, or a toy for kids, you should know that most Twitter users are between 26...

This is the scene: My diminutive, white-haired, almost-70 mother walking through a hotel parking lot in San Diego one morning in a purple satin kimono with ostrich feather trim over boxer shorts and a t-shirt that says, "Put on your big girl panties and deal with it!" Plus red cowboy...

I just finished translating a handbook on disability for employees of one of France's biggest companies. It was a timely project; disability has been on my mind lately because I've recently had a taste of what it's like from the inside looking out.

I made it to 50 without ever...

When you choose to wear the red flannel shirt instead of the blue sweater, you're expressing yourself. Your mood. Your personality. Your values even. When you display a kitschy '70s vase from a thrift store on the designer table in your entryway it's the same thing. Same with the hula...

You know how when you plan a dinner party you put as much thought into the guest list as you do the menu? You think about who knows whom, who's in need of a little matchmaking or cheering up, who's likely to rub someone the wrong way... You filter the...

I was born at the tail end of the Baby Boom ('61), and most of my friends around my age don't use the Internet for much more than Amazon and email, just like they did 15 years ago.

A few who have teens or kids who've gone away to college...