The Culture The Home Forum
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Word by word
Every student must navigate the transition from summary to critical thought.
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I sing in praise of puttering
To putter is to improve the things at hand the way one cannot with the world at large.
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Making a MacGyver in Costa Rica
The 1980s TV action hero lives on – as a metaphor for creative adaptation.
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I am taught by towels
How have I learned Scottish phrases? Let’s say I soak up knowledge.
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Compassion keeps knocking
Our front door seems far too accessible in this African city.
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Tossing what the clutter elves snuck in
I felt like Daniel Boone taming a vast wilderness – my overstuffed basement.
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Back in touch with typing
No wonder kids like it: real molecules of ink hitting real molecules of paper.
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Bystander training
An incident on a train in Germany points to how things have changed there.
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What about when he goes to college?
Before my son, Tim, came along, there was Char, my black Labrador.
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Why I’m not that girl in the book
I once longed to be a storybook heroine. Today I aspire to joy.
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The amazing race
It demands stamina, agility, quick thinking, grace – but the payoff is huge.
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Wireless communication of a different sort
Out of necessity, my 21st-century teen tries his hand at an antique medium.
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There are birds, and then there’s Noodle
My new project is to get to know my garden’s avian regulars as individuals.
Photos of the Week 12/10 Photos of the Week
A Mandarin duck swims in Central Park in New York on Dec. 5. In the weeks since it appeared in Central Park, the duck has become a celebrity.
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Finding the everyday in the exotic
To travel is to encounter the unfamiliar and strange. But not always.
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Notes to my garden denizens
Feeding birds, planting asparagus – even sleeping at night – are hardly routine.
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Setting a course for solo adventure
I have long loved to travel in a way that gives some of my friends pause.
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How ‘holy days’ became vacation
The etymology of holiday is easy to see, coming from 'holy day,' a day of particular religious significance, often celebrating the life of a saint, during which no work was to be done.
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What we know about blackberries
That galloping sound? The rising darkness? Look out! Here they come!
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The book next to the one I was looking for
I never mastered the art of efficient library research. But I found great stuff.
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Puppy love, it’s not
A Labrador retriever provides a couple with a lesson in listening and love.
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Our rocky road to rhododendrons
Any way you looked at it, Plaza Lake meant adventure.
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Of time, tide, and graduation
Mastery can be the work of one moment, or the task of many.
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My tuna fish revelation
How could something so dreary become so dreamy?
