Before you can even digest that last slice of pumpkin pie after Thursday's Thanksgiving feast, some of the nation's biggest retailers will be opening their doors for "Black Friday" holiday sales when the clock strikes midnight on November 25.

Macy's and Target were the first to announce "Black Midnight."...

How many of you know who Ed Lee is? Google spits out Ed Lee the artist, Ed Lee the novelist, and Ed Lee, a UC Berkeley professor.

The Ed Lee I'm talking about is the mayor of San Francisco -- and he is worth every word. In many people's...

The graying of America now appears in full color. Bye-bye dirty brown roots. Hello to a head-full of glorious gray and all its variations ... from salt-and-pepper to silvery white.

Embracing gray has become the new "look at me" statement. We saw actress Jamie Lee Curtis go gray a...

Obituaries never used to interest me. They seemed remote, depressing, nothing to do with my life. As one ages, however, those last words about an individual's life, carefully crafted by a loved one, represent a legacy of greatness, good, and ultimately, proof that they existed.

When my father passed away...

My mind's been consumed by pot lately.

No, I'm not smoking it, but the conversation around Proposition 19, the initiative to legalize and regulate marijuana for adults, is being debated about, sung about, and questioned enough to ignite and split California voters down the middle.

A

Forget Secretariat, the race to watch is between Meg and Jerry - and who's willing to bet on the winner?

Willie Brown hit it on the nail when he said in his weekly column, "Meg Whitman's biggest problem with her handling of the 'nanny issue' isn't with the...

Three years ago, I discovered J. Crew. You know, the somewhat preppy clothing store that exudes a sense of fashionable elegance all the same? I was looking for a place that offered my style: classic with a fresh flare. I had outgrown the predictable offerings of Banana Republic and the...

Between now and the next few weeks, thousands of college freshmen will move into campus dorms to begin what's billed as perhaps "the best time of their lives." Thanks, Mom and Dad. With all the talk of parents struggling to pay for college costs amidst an economy fraught with unemployment...

By the time this blog is published, California Attorney General Jerry Brown is expected to have joined the gubernatorial race, officially. Up to now, news reports have focused on Meg Whitman's quest to lead the state and her impressive lead over GOP competitor Steve Poizner. The next few months, leading...

The battle against child obesity will not be won solely by improving school lunch menus or teaching parents how to select healthier foods. We need to simply get off our butts. All of us. Americans, and especially parents, must make a concrete, consistent change from living passive, sluggish lifestyles to...

Barbara Bush looks like she's always been a mother: softly coiffed hair, calm demeanor, always graced with her signature classic pearls. So when I saw the former first lady as a 'My Turn' contributor in Newsweek (December 14, 2009), I was curious about what she had to say.

In...

If you're anything like me - living in this mad, mad world of information overload - it may be difficult to look back at 2009 and remember the big news stories that defined this year. There are the stories that were shocking; others were tragic; yet there are also the...

It was a simple choice: write Christmas cards or write a blog. Guess which one won out tonight? Like many of you, I've faithfully sent holiday cards for years. This year I thought I might resort to the impersonal, Scrooge-inspired e-card but somehow, an electronic greeting seemed as though I'd...

What started out as a win for the defense -- getting the murder trial of former BART police officer Johannes Mehserle moved from Oakland (Alameda County) citing pre-trial publicity -- will now become an even more publicized case reminiscent of the Rodney King police brutality case back in 1992.

The...