Nearly half of all Americans spend their entire paycheck — or more — every month. It’s no wonder: Stuff’s expensive these days, and raises are hard to come by. And despite the recent uptick in the stock market, the idea that the economy has improved in recent years seems theoretical and...
All too often, it feels like our lives are slipping out of our control: Unopened mail piling up, deadlines looming, home a mess. “If I could just get all this trivial day-to-day stuff running smoothly,” we tell ourselves, “All the big stuff would fall into place!” But...
Sometimes, the “good” version of you — the one that successfully holds down a job, keeps a relationship together and maintains a semblance of a normal life — is eclipsed by a different one: Enter Drunk You. This is the you that thinks eight cheeseburgers is a reasonable dinner; that sees...
If you’ve never tended bar before, the process of ordering, consuming and paying for drinks warrants little thought. It’s what you do when you go out: You ask for a drink, someone makes it for you and then you pay for it. But for those of us...
To keep your Christmas guests impressed and/or safe this year, we reached out to three fire experts: Captain Mikel Hawke, a Green Beret and Extreme Adventure Instructor; Buck Tilton, a wilderness medicine expert and author of 40 books on the subject; and Mark, a father of five from a family obsessed with perfect fire-lighting. Here’s their...
When you’re a kid hoping to find a new bike or Nintendo under the tree on Christmas morn, nothing disappoints like opening a pair of socks instead. Wrapping paper does little to disguise this looming letdown: The instant you pick up a small, flat, squishy gift, you...
There’s a reason December 26th is one of the busiest shopping days of the year: Everyone’s taking back all the weird stuff they unwrapped on December 25th. Even with tags and gift receipts, returning gifts can be a relational (and retail) minefield. So how can you get through...
When you’re a dad, parenting questions often come up that you struggle to find an answer to. Since other parents are the worst and Google will send you down a rabbit hole of paralyzing, paranoid terror, we’re here to help by putting those questions to the experts....
The time has finally come: This Christmas will be the first I’ll be spending with my partner’s family, and not only her close family — every last aunt, uncle, niece, nephew, grandma, grandpa and that one lady who’s somehow lumped into the bunch, too. Which has presented me with...
White elephant. Yankee swap. Dirty Santa. Whatever you want to call it, there’s a decent chance you’ll be attending some variation of a gag gift exchange in the next couple of weeks — an event that can be oddly stressful and strangely competitive. All eyes are locked on a...
In this installment of our “What Makes Me a…” column, we asked five people what they think makes someone a good gift-giver. In the end, it really does seem that it’s the thought that counts… unless you’re staff writer Tracy Moore, in which case it’s asking her...
On the sole of your foot, right in the center of the heel. According to the ancient practice of reflexology, that’s the zone of the foot that corresponds to the genitals. Further forward, in the arch of your foot, right before the ball, is the zone that...