Mary Zahran

As I write these words on a mild morning in late May, I am both looking forward to and dreading the coming days of summer.

Is April really the cruelest month? T.S. Eliot certainly thought so. In “The Wasteland,” a poem widely regarded as a literary masterpiece, Eliot offers a description of April so bleak …

When I was a little girl, my mother would do her spring cleaning in March or April, depending on the weather and her schedule. This process consisted of her scrubbing all the woodwork in the house, along with all the walls, the windows, and every square inch of flooring.

When Feb. 14 rolls around, we usually send valentines to our friends and family members and to that “special someone,” if we are lucky enough to have one in our lives. Who thinks of sending a Valentine’s Day greeting to his or her dentist?

Technology and I are not friends. If anything, we are mortal enemies, having engaged in a decades-long battle over a variety of devices that have evolved and presented me with new adversaries. While …

Perhaps the headline on my column is somewhat of an overstatement. I don’t think you can watch a Christmas movie and learn how to perform brain surgery, change the oil in your car, or make a souffle. I do, however, think you can either learn invaluable life lessons from holiday films or reaffirm your existing beliefs. Some of these lessons may be trivial, and others may be profound. It depends on the film you are watching.

At this time of year, it is customary for many of us to give thanks for the blessings in our lives. We gather around the dinner table and express our gratitude for our families and friends, our …