How Exercise May Bolster the Brain

Exercise may help change exercisers’ brains in surprising ways, according to a new study of physical activity and brain health. The study, which included both mice and people, found that exercise prompts the liver to pump out a little-known protein, and that chemically upping the levels of that protein in out-of-shape, elderly animals rejuvenates their…

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Tips on Buying Bulbs for Fall Planting

Shopping for flower bulbs: It’s one of the more joyful summertime garden chores, certainly better than dragging hoses and sprinklers around or keeping ahead of the most incorrigible weeds. Bulb catalogs and their corresponding websites have no shortage of enticing choices, and now is the time to order spring-flowering bulbs for fall planting — or…

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The Return of Jane Elliott

The day after the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. was assassinated in 1968, the schoolteacher Jane Elliott scrapped her lesson plan — teaching her third graders the Sioux prayer about not judging another person until you have “walked a mile in his moccasins” — for an experiential learning exercise. She split the children at…

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The Phantom Handbag

I feel it sometimes, like a phantom limb, banging against my side as I move around the house. I sense it nestled in the crook of my arm as I wander from room to room. It was the one-time receptacle of all I held immediately important: purse, receipts, identification, charger, books, tissues (fresh and used),…

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