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Dear Annie: The burden of always being available

Dear Annie: My younger sister has always been the “fun one” in our family. She breezes in late with a bottle of wine and a funny story, and somehow everyone forgives her before she has even taken off her coat. She forgets birthdays, cancels plans at the last minute and borrows money she never seems to pay back. My parents still smile and say, “That’s just how she is.” I, on the other hand, have become the family’s unpaid manager. I am the one who takes my mother to her doctor’s appointments, makes sure my father’s prescriptions are filled, hosts Thanksgiving and ...

Word recall difficulty causes concern in 70-year-old female

DEAR DR. ROACH: I’m a healthy 70-year-old female who still works full-time and plays tennis regularly. I’m 5 feet, 6 inches tall and weigh 140 pounds. My concern is my memory, especially my speech. English is my second language, but I’ve been in the United States for over 40 years. Words often disappear from me when I need them and come back later when the subject is closed. When I shared my concern with my friend, I was told that nicotine patches are helpful for memory loss, even though I’m no longer a smoker. I quit smoking 15 years ago after decades of smoking. What’s ...

Paving paradise: Dismantling the US Roadless Rule threatens to disrupt wildlife, water and peace in the last quiet places in America

Pause for a moment and listen. What do you hear? Chances are, somewhere in the background, is the ever-present hum of a road. More than 4.2 million miles of public roads crisscross the lower 48 states — enough to reach the Moon and back almost nine times. This vast network of roads spiderwebs its way across the contiguous U.S., leaving only about 5% as an inventoried roadless area or wilderness. Now, some of those last remaining lands free of roads are under threat from the Trump administration’s proposed rollback of the 2001 Roadless Rule. That includes southeast Alaska’s ...

Dear Annie: Growing older, feeling smaller

Dear Annie: I sit here writing to you starting another week much like the past six months of this year: depressed by the way time has altered my life. I’m 76 and married. My routine rarely changes. I wake up, listen to the news and eat breakfast. I straighten up the house and make the bed. I sometimes go shopping or have doctor’s visits. I read, do needlework and pay bills. My family lives 200 miles away, and I talk to them every Sunday. If I don’t, I feel more depressed. Visits from family have lessened since our children have grown and gotten jobs. I feel like crying most of ...

There are many types of blue and white porcelain

Blue and white ceramics have been made all over the world, from Chinese porcelain to Dutch delft to the cobalt blue decorations on American stoneware. One type, Hirado ware, comes from Japan. Its name comes from the Hirado Domain, which lasted from 1587 until 1871, when the domain system was ...

Your next senator will finally face the Social Security decision point

Americans will soon choose a set of senators who will take office in January 2027 and serve through early 2033. In the final months of that term, Social Security’s retirement trust fund is expected to run dry and trigger benefits cuts of 22% — not just for the wealthy, not just for new retirees, but for everyone up to and including widows living on survivors’ checks. Somehow, this has yet to sink into the national consciousness. The precise timing is a projection. The cuts are not. They’re activated automatically following the law: Once the trust fund is empty, Social ...