As many of us recovered from a long weekend of merriment, friends, family—and, in many cases, too much alcohol—I wondered if champagne alone was really to blame for that oh-so-crummy feeling after New Year's Eve. Turns out it might not have been. As this Wall Street Journal articleexplains, booze is not the only thing that brings on killer hangovers. Researchers have found… Read More >>

When is wasting time watching cool videos not wasting time watching cool videos? When those cool videos come from the Smithsonian, my all-time favorite museum. Smithsonian.com recently posted their 10 most popular videos of 2012, and it is one fascinating lineup. The only existing footage of Mark Twain; an epic battle between T-Rex and Titanoboa (a 48-foot, one-ton prehistoric snake);… Read More >>

Even when you live and breathe food, certain things never seem to make it off of the Pinterest board and into happy stomachs. So perhaps it's no surprise that everyone's getting in on the New Year's resolution game—here are food-related goals from Food52, Buzzfeed, and Big Girls Small Kitchen. As for me, my own resolution is easy: Make these, eat, and repeat. 1. Homemade sushi.Here's a secret: My favorite thing to… Read More >>

Sure, I'm a little biased because I work at Reader's Digest and have seen my incredible co-worker Adrienne Farr shed over 60 pounds on the Digest Diet plan, but I was still amazed when I read this piece in the New York Post the other day. The newspaper challenged people to try different weight loss plans during the holidays to see which diet book led to the biggest success. From losing baby weight to kicking carb and caffeine cravings, The…came… Read More >>

Like Pinterest? Love cats? Have a bunch of friends that are sick of your compulsive need to share snapshots of your cat on social media? There's a home for you now. First brought to my attention by Kelly Faircloth on BetaBeat, a tech blog by the New York Observer, Catmoji is a one-stop shop for feline social networking. Why? To hear the site's designers explain it, "Because the Internet love cats and we want to make the… Read More >>

When I owned a dog, I was convinced that he and I could communicate. I thought that if I talked to him in a slow and reasonable manner, he would somehow suss out what I was trying to say, which was usually along the lines of “Please don’t pee on the carpet.” It turns out that my dog Phineas was not fluent in English. It wasn’t even a second… Read More >>

Though my interest in the latest Pixar flicks has diminished slightly since I first saw Toy Story in 1995, I still get a childlike kick out of their animated shorts (have you seenPartysaurus Rex?) and appreciate newer titles. Now, the film studio has outdone itself with Monsters University, a fictitious yet entirely believable college website created to promote the release of a Monsters, Inc. prequelthis summer. The… Read More >>

And it's Hillary Clinton—again! For the 11th year in a row, Americans named Clinton as their Most Admired Woman in the world, according to a Gallup poll. With the 2012 honor, Clinton has earned the title the most times (17 total) in Gallup history. The USA Today/Gallup poll is open-ended, meaning Americans are asked to name the man and woman they most admire without… Read More >>

As an aging soccer player and runner, I love seeing spectacular displays of athleticism in unexpected places. On days when my knees creak and back aches, they remind me of the physical feats possible with a little talent and a lot of practice. Sure, you can see amazing catches, goals and playsfrom the pros, but some of my best-loved moments occur when there's no roaring… Read More >>

It would seem at first that Charles Durning and Daniel Inouye, who died this month within a week of each other, had little or nothing in common. Durning was born in Highland Falls, N.Y in 1923; Inouye was born in Honolulu in 1924. Durning, an outstanding character actor, entertained us for decades on stage, screen and television. Inouye, a U.S. Senator for… Read More >>