We all know the stats about kids and musical instruments: Those who learn to play at a young age perform better in school, score higher in math and English tests, and may even be more successful in life than their non-musical peers. Those are some pretty powerful motivators to get your little one started on a violin or piano—pronto. … //READ MORE

When I look at this photo of my mother, Phyllis, taken in 1963 in Brooklyn, New York, for her high school yearbook portrait, the first thing I notice (besides the beehive hairdo) is how mature she looked for a teenager. In fact, all high school seniors looked pretty sophisticated back then. Maybe it was the solemn expressions they were encouraged to make right before the 35-millimeter camera flashed, or perhaps it was the pearls, sweater sets and bowties that were de rigueur back in the day for formal portraits. I like to imagine my mother, sitting in front of her etched mirror in her mid-century bedroom, teasing her locks into a glorious pouf, then meticulously drawing cat eyes with liquid liner, to prepare for the event. It was my fascination with photos like these of my stylish young mom that inspired my own taste for 1960s fashion—minus the Aqua Net hairspray—and probably one of the reasons I’m a fan of Madmen culture. Betty Draper, eat your heart out.

Do you know a remarkable woman who made a style impact back in her day? Send us her photo, and she could be next to star in Red Typewriter!

I was getting ready for a girls night out, a long-anticipated evening of friends, fun conversation and frufru cocktails. I was still at home, waiting for my friend to pick me up, thinking that I had cleaned up pretty nice—especially given the fact that just an hour earlier I had paint stains on my shirt from doing a craft project with the kids, my hair was piled in a tangled mess on my head, and dog hair clung to every inch of my yoga pants. Now that my locks were actually washed and I was sporting a new pair of heels, I was ready to shed my mommy skin and tackle the grown-up world. I was feeling pretty good.

Then the doorbell rang and in walked my friend. I looked at her and in two seconds realized she had a powerful new beauty tool in her arsenal, and I was jealous.

“Uh, exactly what is happening south of your eyebrows?” I asked her. … //READ MORE

There they were, two of the most formidable women in America, sitting side by side on the stage of Davies Symphony Hall in San Francisco: Arianna Huffington, president and editor-in-chief of the Huffington Post Media Group, and her friend Sheryl Sandberg, chief operating officer of Facebook. The media mavens united for this much-anticipated Commonwealth Club INFORUM event March 27 to discuss Huffington’s new book, Thrive, a heartfelt, inspirational read that poses an important question: How can women redefine success, not only in order to lead healthier, more productive lives, but also to change the world for the better?

For Huffington, that topic literally hit her hard one day in 2007 when she collapsed in her office, struck her head on her desk and ended up with a slashed eye and broken cheekbone. She saw several doctors to find out why she had fainted, but none could find anything medically wrong. But the reality was, during the two years leading up to the incident she had been working 24/7 building her new business, the Huffington Post. Yes, she had achieved success as defined by the traditional measures—money and power—but there was something missing. “There was nothing wrong with me—just with the way I was living my life,” she said. “Believe me, if you are lying in a pool of blood in your office … //READ MORE

What do most of us think about, when we think about love? No, not a Raymond Carver short story, however intriguing were his musings on relationships. I think when most of us think about love, and all the entrapments of that fickle emotion, clichés pop into our heads. When we’re young, we envision passionate kisses, dizzying emotions, even the uneasiness of unrequited desire. With maturity comes wisdom, and our slightly-more-advanced selves can accept that even the most frenzied romantic love, if nourished with enough affection and shared purpose, has the capacity to ripen into a secure and long-lasting partnership.

If we’re lucky, we retain some of the passion that ignited our union in the first place. If we’re really lucky, the arrival of children teaches us that love requires equal parts patience, self-sacrifice and surrender. And if we’re really, really lucky … //READ MORE

My 8-year-old was the first to voice his exhaustion. “Mommy, just how many Buddhas do we have to see in Thailand?” Granted, it was a sweltering 98 degrees in Bangkok and we were probably on our ninth temple of the day. Before that, we’d chased Buddhas throughout the southern part of the country, where it was equally hot and humid. And prior to arriving in Bangkok, we’d traveled around Japan catching even more glimpses of the Enlightened One. The Great Buddha in Kamakura, Japan, which towers over sightseers, was probably my children’s favorite. And, in their view, a great place to end the Buddha tour.

But no chance of that, kids, now that we were in Thailand for five days and the Buddhas here were as plentiful as the Pad Thai. Not to mention the fact that Mommy, a self-declared Buddhist-in-training, was armed with a map and a determination to see just how powerful this figure reigns in Thai culture. … //READ MORE