When Aishat AnuOluwapo Bakare (Anu) was a little girl in Nigeria, her mother gave her a book. Gifted Hands by Benjamin Carson, M.D. would change her life forever. There are many lessons in this best-selling autobiography by the Johns Hopkins neurosurgeon, but the one that resonated with this eight-year-old was:...

When you hear about 'extreme vacations' you think of space travel, heli-skiing, shark diving...

But this month my husband and I experienced Extreme India. We did not climb Mount Everest. We didn't even trek the Himalayas. No tiger safaris ... or spartan ashrams. We just drove the new national highways...

This post has nothing to do with taking your clothes off. But it is very revealing.
Confirmation that the world is flat (to quote Thomas Friedman) can be found in Kenya, Tanzania and Rwanda. East Africa has been transported from the 10th century to the 21st thanks to...

We went for the gorillas. We left with so much more.

For 7 years we have taken what we hoped would be enriching trips with our best friends. This December the two families chose Rwanda partly because our most memorable vacation to date was a safari in Botswana. In Rwanda...

Since I left my native NY for a career in broadcasting many moons ago, I have wanted to return. Truth be told, I grew up on Long Island, but like the John Travolta character Tony Manero in Saturday Night Fever, I longed to be in Manhattan, the 'real' NY. My...

This was supposed to be a post about Election Day from the sidelines. My first since 1978 neither voting nor reporting the results. We are in Vancouver, British Columbia and 'though I mailed my absentee ballot I feel a world away from the civic pride that comes with going to...

It's official: we have become our parents.

Remember the Seinfeld episode where Jerry's visiting his mom and dad in Florida? If he wants to eat dinner it has to be before 5:30 p.m. That's the cut-off for the early-bird special.

We oh-so-hip baby boomers chimed right in with the laugh...

What is art?
The first definition I found online says: "The human effort to imitate, supplement, alter, or counteract the work of nature."
Thousands of definitions follow but this one works for me and it certainly begins to describe the work of Josep Cisquella.
I was drawn...

When I met Arianna Huffington last year during parents' weekend at our son's college she invited me to blog for her Post.
I wasn't sure what the point was, but since I was about to leave my local news career, I was eager to try something new. Besides, my...

The Idaho-born Americana rock musician had played in Baltimore before, but I wasn't invited to the concert.

So when our son called a few weeks ago from school and asked me to purchase tickets for his homecoming (Everett's, not Josh's) he didn't have to ask twice. The last time we...

Nearly 4- months after my last day of work, I feel like it's my first day of school.

Morning jitters followed a sleepless night as I went over my packing list again and again and again. Today I am NY- bound alone. My life partner is enroute to Europe and...

It's always been about my face. My sister pursued her artistic talent. My brother parlayed his smarts into several advanced degrees. I tried to capitalize on my looks. Our parents were all about education, so it's not like I didn't have to think. But the combination opened the door to...

"Wait, there's something on my lap."
I was about to be discharged from the surgery center when I cautioned my nurse and friend to hold off standing me upright. Turned out that "something" was my arm.
I had had a local anesthetic prior to shoulder surgery that had...

Four years after its most recent bombings, Bali is still reeling from the aftershocks. How could such a peaceful people be the victims of such violence?

The idea was to find a quick getaway for a little R&R after my husband did business in Singapore (that's what one does there,...

The woman I once called my Auntie Mame is 84 years old, suffers from end stage Parkinson's, and has forgotten that the disease is her enemy and not me.

Aunt Gloria is single and childless, but not exactly an old maid. She has boasted all my life that she "did...

It's not about abayas.
It's not about education.
It's not about employment.
It's not even about voting...
The women I talked with in Riyadh last week have adapted and believe change is coming. But they've hit a glass ceiling. Or, more accurately, a roadblock.
...

Think about it. Where else in the world are you required to buy a specific piece of clothing in a specific color (for a specific gender?)

We all know about the burqa debate in France. Muslim women who CHOOSE to veil are being challenged... but on a recent trip to...

It was supposed to be a celebration.

Our son Everett had survived his first semester at Yale. He left his last exam to make it back to Baltimore for his mother's last newscast. I was retiring from TV news after more than 30 years at the anchor desk to write...