On an average day, we allow ourselves the fiction that we own a piece of our workplace. That's part of what it takes to get the job done. Deeper down, we know it's all on loan.

TV happens. And once it's happened, it's gone. When it's gone, you move on, no tears, no tantrums, no videotape

The first gay person I ever met was surely not the first gay person I ever met.

Linda Tripp has shown that a true friend is an archivist, a biographer.

The soul-sucking activity of TV-watching feels better when it is done with other souls.

A line from one of my 1997 columns - 'Do one thing every day that scares you' - is now widely attributed to Eleanor Roosevelt, though I have yet to see any evidence that she ever said it and I don't believe she did. She said some things about fear, but not that thing.

For some Chicago expats, food is the medicine that blunts the pain of separation.