It never lost its magic the way most things do. You get older, you look up close and you see the strings on puppets, cards up the trickster's sleeve. Childhood pleasures seldom stand up to adult scrutiny. Except every once in a while, the magic lingers, and a long-awaited moment doesn't disappoint.

When my friend Beth was in fifth grade, she prayed for the one thing she wanted more than anything in the world to crown the…

How I hate contests. I hate them because they divide people into winners and losers and there are always more losers than winners, more people walking away with their heads bowed than with their heads held high.

Maybe I'd feel differently if I had been the first kid always picked for a team. But from Red Rover to kickball to softball, I never was…

They all come back. Every time there's another delay in the still pending drunk driving legislation. Every time someone shrugs off drinking and driving as something everyone does. Every time some judge who should know better treats drunk drivers as good guys who've slipped up a little, but didn't really mean to do anything wrong. Then, every parent…

Normally, he is like Henry Higgins: an "ordinary man, even-tempered and good-natured whom you'd never hear complain, who has the milk of human kindness by the quart in every vein." But let the Bruins in his life …

And my husband becomes a wild man. Here's a guy who is generally unflappable. We miss a plane to Lincoln, Nebraska because someone read…

The dress was in a Filene's bag, upstairs, in my bedroom, on top of the ironing board. I bought it Saturday, brought it home, tried it on, didn't like it and was planning on returning it. It never occurred to me that someone would actually come into my room, steal the bag and leave the dress behind.

But this is exactly what…

I bought her bright blue stretch pants and a bright blue flowered blouse to match. My mother never wore stretch pants. Still, she put them on and left the house.

'How come you don't wear your new outfit to work, Mom…

Another year passes, another begins. Amy died 10 years ago today, in her mother's arms, struggling to stay alive even at the end. Every breath meant another few minutes of everything she knew, everyone she loved.' I want you to come with me,' she whispered to her mother as death approached. 'I wish I could, sweetie,' her mother said holding her, holding to her. 'But this is something you have to do …

Normally, he is like Henry Higgins an 'ordinary man, even-tempered and good-natured whom you'd never hear complain, who has the milk of human kindness by the quart in every vein.' But let the Bruins in his life . . .

And my husband becomes a wild man. Here's a guy who is generally unflappable. We miss a plane to Lincoln, Neb., because someone read the ticket wrong and he actually says, 'Hey. What's the big deal. We'll fly to Omaha and rent a car. It'll be an adventure…