“Your face is my map to your life.” ~ Harry Houdini, magician
We are all literally and unwittingly two-faced. To learn more about how you present yourself to the world and about your underlying, more “private” feelings, you just have to look yourself in the face.
Want to get out a mirror now, before you read further?
You [...]

Years ago a candidate for California Superintendant of Schools repeatedly insinuated that his opponent was lying on her business tax returns and had an affair with a student intern. His charges were immediately disputed by her accountant, the student and several co-workers at her firm.
Not surprisingly, the attacks generated considerable interest in their first televised [...]

Holidays are times of great loving and loneliness and we often don’t know who is experiencing which. For many it is a bit of both.
For us all this can be a prime time for kindness, sometimes by sharing what we have.
And kindness is often unspoken. “An eye can threaten like a loaded and leveled [...]

After a priest moved to a new parish he approached his superior one afternoon to ask, “Would you mind if I smoked while praying?” and was, not surprisingly, turned down.
Yet how one makes a request has a huge impact on whether it will be  granted. For example, the priest might have said, “Would you mind [...]

In a New Yorker cartoon, a bored-looking couple are sitting apart on a couch, facing a smiling therapist who says, “Any healthy relationship requires fundamental acting skills.” Clearly the Michelangelo Effect is not in play.
Couples who affirm and support each other’s best side also “sculpt” each other in beneficial ways. They become deeply committed and [...]

Something in yesterday’s “Modern Love“ column struck me as ringing true, not only for enduring marriages but for flourishing friendships, “Being single is all about the future, about the person you’re going to meet at Starbucks or after answering the next scientific compatibility questionnaire. Being married, after a certain point, is about the past, about a steadily [...]

“Wall Street swindler Bernie Madoff failed to protect his assets with a bankruptcy motion. His lawyer tried to get all charges dropped. He argued that Madoff is no longer a threat to society because there aren’t any rich people anymore,” writes Argus Hamilton in jest.

Here’s two more mock news items from Argus:
“Earth Day is a day when [...]

… to decide whether you like or trust the person, say researchers. Snap judgments happen  without conscious thought. Yet another part of the study has scarier implications for forging relationships. When participants were given more time to describe their reactions they were:
   •  Slightly more negative than those given less time.
   •  More certain that they were [...]