This is an exciting time for young people who are about to start their first year of college... No matter how serious they are about their studies, the temptation to party is nearly impossible to resist.

As near as the genealogists in my family can discern, I'm English and Welsh, with enough Irish thrown in to make me personally embattled and internally unstable.

What exactly was the Rev. Jesse L. Jackson thinking when he sat in front of a TV camera and a microphone - at, of all places, a Fox News affiliate! - and whispered as an off-air aside that he wanted to castrate Sen. Barack Obama for "talking down" to black people?

It is unclear why anyone would write to me asking for help planning a wedding, so I was surprised when it happened.

Quick: How many amendments to the Constitution are there? Can't say offhand? Then you would not have been among the 20 new citizens from 15 different countries who swore their allegiance to the Constitution at Ellis Island this week. They were expected to know that fact along with many others about U.S. government and history that most native-born Americans would have been hard-pressed to recall.

To the skeptical observer, an amusing aspect of the 2008 presidential contest is watching both candidates maneuver to place themselves above criticism, as willing media acolytes invent helpful storylines. At every opportunity, Barack Obama's campaign hints that any/all criticism of the Democratic candidate is by definition racist.

I never thought in terms of "bringing up geeks." But for much of my young life, I was a geek. Full disclosure: while other girls in junior high school had pictures of Leif Garrett in their lockers, I had pictures of Ronald Reagan.

Jeff Foxworthy, a comedian who is famous for his, "You might be a redneck" jokes, came up with a new list. This list was titled "You might be a teacher." The items were sort of funny and true. For example:

Many of those who fought to save the beloved School on the Hill have begun to accept that a new Norwood High School will be built behind the present stately structure and that the beautiful old building that is an important symbol in so many lives will eventually be reduced to rubble. Nothing can change that now. The train has left the station.

The photo in the paper was a professional publicity shot, evocative of a young Katie Couric, but it was Norwood’s own Stephanie Simoni, looking like she could take on the world without losing an ounce of cool.