Lotusland Living with the threat of further natural disasters is a choice that residents of coastal California have been making for years, and scores of people have decided that it’s absolutely worth the risk. (State Farm, Allstate, AIG and Chubb insurers, among others, disagree; all have stopped issuing new home insurance policies in the state.)…
“More times than I can remember, a spouse or child has said to me, ‘If he wasn’t dead, I’d kill him all over again for leaving me with this mess,’” said Greg Rohan, the president of Heritage Auctions. Most people tend to know what to do with traditional investments after someone dies, he said, but…
It’s a question on every new parent’s exhausted mind: Why are babies born so helpless? In 1960, an American anthropologist laid out an influential explanation rooted in human evolution. As our early ancestors began walking upright, Sherwood Washburn argued in 1960, they evolved a narrower pelvis to make walking long distances more efficient. At the…
Because sometimes leaving isn’t the best option.
As a family sat vigil over a coffin containing the body of an elderly relative, the wooded hills around their apartment building in Palermo burned from wildfires. Winds blew the blazes closer, torching cars, dumpsters, sheds and electricity poles. Then the flames licked the apartment building, forcing its inhabitants to flee. “We wanted to leave…
On a cool April morning, my mother pulled up outside the halfway house in Augusta, Ga., where I had been living since my release from federal prison. She was one of the few people who had supported me during my years behind bars. I sat in the passenger’s seat of the black Ford Fusion as…
On a Thursday evening in late June, Clarissa Champlain learned that her 15-year-old son Brodee had been in a terrible crash, the latest teen victim of an e-bike accident. He had been riding from home to shot-putting practice. The e-bike, a model made by Rad Power, had a top speed of 20 miles per hour,…
A lot of “Deadheads,” as the Grateful Dead fans affectionately call themselves, either gravitated toward DMB or Phish when the band’s lead songwriter, Jerry Garcia, died in 1995, said Jeff Travitz, 61, a franchise development manager in Downingtown, Pa., who has taped over 100 DMB concerts. The bands are each unique, he said, but they…
E-bikes are increasingly visible on roads and bicycle paths, with a growing number of teenagers among the riders. But the recent deaths of several teenage riders has raised concerns about the safety of some types of vehicles, and about whether they legally qualify as e-bikes. Here’s what’s known about e-bikes and their risks. What Is…
Weddings are steeped in tradition, but where did those traditions come from? And how do those customs differ in other cultures? In our new column, “Traditions,” we aim to explore the origins of various wedding customs from the United States and around the world. On the night before a wedding, a purposeful cacophony of shattering…