Why sending your kid to a “traditional” summer camp is more important than ever By Eric Spitznagel “Are you ready for the summer? Are you ready for the good times?…” Those unforgettable song lyrics, burned into my subconscious when I first saw the summer-camp movie Meatballs almost 40 years ago…

Is 2020 the wrong year to tell my son the terrible truth about Santa? — As a four-year-old boy, Michael Leviton had no interest in Santa Claus. That was partly because he was Jewish. But it was also due to his parents’ belief in total and uncompromising honesty, Leviton writes in his memoir, “To Be Honest” (Abrams Press), out January 5. Raising him in Los…

Every lifetime has a U-shaped ‘happiness curve.’ At 50, I can tell you what that means. — I’m 50 years old, which means I’m roughly two-and-a-half years removed from the unhappiest point in my life. That number isn’t arbitrary. It comes from new research by Dartmouth economist David Blanchflower. …

The holidays can be emotionally taxing for many people, but especially so for Sarah Montana. It’s been more than a decade since her brother and mother were murdered in her childhood home in Dale City, Va. “I have all of my mom’s ornaments and decorations, and every year I have…

There have been many famous babies throughout history: The Lindbergh Baby. The Gerber Baby. Baby Jessica. Rosemary’s Baby. But has there ever been a baby as universally loved and fawned over as Baby Yoda? For all the joy that Baby Yoda brings us, he can also be confusing. And not…

A remarkable thing happened during game two of the 2016 World Series. Chicago Cubs slugger Kyle Schwarber hit a RBI single in the third inning. That’s not the remarkable part. …

Like many people who grew up on the Leelanau Peninsula — sometimes called the “little finger” of the Michigan mitten — I didn’t realize until well into my mid-20s that Petoskey stones aren’t a precious metal. A Petoskey stone is a fossilized coral that can only be found on the…

‘Are the rich really different from the rest of us?’ I ask myself while wrestling with my billionaire younger brother at 3 a.m. — For most of the last decade, my brother Mark and his family lived in a house with a moat. The house — a four-bedroom French villa in Bel Air previously owned by Jennifer Lopez and Marc Anthony — is pretty impressive even without the moat, but that unnecessary protective trench…

It’s exhilarating to get an email from Forrest Fenn, the 89-year-old retired antique dealer from New Mexico who’s responsible for one of the biggest and most controversial treasure hunts of the 21st century. He doesn’t do phone calls anymore — he’s been losing his hearing in old age, he says…