Culture

From late night bites to catching up with friends, diners provide a familiar setting for so many of life’s moments. Here’s why we love diners.

Carrot Oatmeal Raisin cookies are soft, tender cookies perfect for sharing. This recipe makes a big batch, so stock some in the cookie jar too. The first time I saw the trailer for Disney’s Christopher Robin movie, my heart swelled. It looked so sweet, so endearing, like such a lovely celebration of childhood. I couldn’t …

The food was laid out. Fairy cakes and wands and elf ears. Napkins and cups and lemonade too. And then the fairies came, dressed in their most fairy-like finery The location, a downtown park area surrounded by gardens, was just right. Bathed in sunlight and the many colors of flowers, it was as if the …

Remember when Birchbox first appeared years ago? There was something so fun about a monthly subscription box that would let you try an assortment of products. This was fun mail, after all, instead of the usual bills and notices adults receive. Fast forward to now, and there are dozens of subscription boxes available for ordering. …

It all starts with feasting. Then comes the decked halls, piles of presents, merriment and more. And finally, there’s the celebration to usher in a fresh, sparkling new year. And amid all of that, there’s time together, laughing with the family, enjoying each other’s company and making new memories. When you’re ready for a little …

I once had a lightsaber fight in the middle of the newsroom I worked in. That sounds a lot more exciting than it was. The lightsabers were simple plastic children’s toys that didn’t even light up. A colleague and I had taken a field trip to a local toy store when the Star Wars toys were …

On the first day of my sophomore year of high school, I was the new kid in a new town going to a new school. We’d moved 45 minutes from the area where I’d grown up, and — by choice — I switched schools from the parochial high school most of my friends attended to …

The creaking of doors opening, and slamming of them closing. The melodic chirps. The moo alert of something important. These are the sounds that punctuated my college years and early professional years — unless, of course, I remembered (and was motivated to) silence them. That rarely happened. For the better part of a decade, AOL’s …

Let’s get something out of the way: I haven’t read Fifty Shades of Grey. It didn’t capture my interest, so I never bothered. But as a features editor, I haven’t been able to escape the fever pitch that’s accompanied the release of the film adaptation of this novel. Heck, this week I used two different reviews …

When I started reading The Divorce Papers: A Novel by Sophie Rieger, I wasn’t sure about it. It’s different. Sophie Diehl is a 29-year-old criminal law associate at a law firm who gets roped into handling a divorce for an important client. The client, who is aware that she has no divorce law experience, wants …