Nancy and Janna Sipes. "As a twin, you ask not only 'Who am I?' but 'Who am I without my twin?' and 'Who am I with my twin?'"

How to Diagnose Lung Cancer: Step One

Mom's Cancer

A comic exorcises Bryan Fies’s demons.

If your mom were diagnosed with cancer, how would you deal with it? Comic creator Brian Fies decided to use sequential art to help cope and deal with the struggle his mother had with the disease. Almost everyone who has read the comic agrees it's a powerful, evocative, poignant, and very human story. When the strip began, Jennifer Contino of the Pulse, an online magazine, approached the then-anonymous creator and asked about an interview, but Fies said he didn't want to do interviews until the story was completed.

By Jennifer Contino, April 21, 2005 | Read full article

Star Motel. Some weekenders couldn't even afford to stay at the decrepit Star Motel, let alone at the more expensive Days Inn, just off Highway 99.

When Your Love is Locked Up

Brave and lovely and found guilty of murder.

During the two days that the jury deliberated, the rest of the world seemed on freeze-frame, and I spoke with no one besides Dee's mom. We spent the time on uncomfortable wooden benches outside the doors to Department 17. Through the Vista Courthouse windows, we could see the TV news trucks raising transmitters and the makeup flunkies prettying up local newscasters, who never failed to grandstand for the final moments of a high-profile murder trial.

By Jay Allen Sanford, Feb. 10, 2005 | Read full article

Kathryn and Karolyn Henderson. "I've caught a quick glance of myself in a window when I've been shopping with Karolyn and I've thought it was her for a split second."

Looking at Her Is Like Looking at Me

Is there a dark side to being a twin?

"A lot of people ask, 'What is it like sharing the same physical attributes?' I always look at my brother and I think that's what people think of me. We'll be going out, and I'll be, like, 'Are you really going to wear that?' I'll ask, 'Are you really going to wear your hair like that?' I feel like people look at him, and they judge me also by the way he looks. And not even the way he looks, but by the way he acts," said Drew Hauryluck.

By Shari McCullough, Sept. 2, 2004 | Read full article

"Men should read Elle and Cosmo, and women should read Playboy and Maxim."

Women Think That Men Are Hairy Women

Who cares if the hunter leaves home hungry?

I was about to participate in a seminar where women spend two days learning about men. I mentioned my upcoming appointment to a few friends and acquaintances and asked them what they thought.

Woman One: "Seminar? Why go to a seminar? Men are so simple. That seems like a big waste of time."

Woman Two: "It's sad that society's generated this belief in a gender gap. Some people are from Mars, some people are from Venus, and some are from Saturn.

By Geoff Bouvier, July 27, 2006 | Read full article

Kevin and Samantha. "Kevin's so young, he's never been destroyed by some other woman. And I can train him."

Age Gap

May and December make whoopee

Q: Chris, what were you thinking during that week that you considered whether you had feelings for Dan?

C: How I was going to break up with my boyfriend because I had found a man that was going to treat me right. Guys my age are just little boys. I don't want that.

Q: A common thread in my interviews with age-gap couples is that they find people their own age unsuitable for one reason or another.

By Doug DuBrul, March 3, 2005 | Read full article

My brother is getting married next month.Their wedding is in a Catholic church, and I plan to wear something smart, like army fatigues. I may accessorize with an assault rifle.

Ken Brown

X2

Farewell to a second husband.

I am soon to be divorced, for the second time. I should be ashamed, but I'm not. Mostly, I'm inconvenienced: Sometimes sad, sometimes grateful, as though I have been untied from the train tracks of life. One thing I've learned is that you can be sad and grateful at the same time. Another revelation I've experienced is that property is everything. Buy the bastards out if necessary. As is always the case with a major breakup, I feel devastated yet freed. Like one of Lincoln's slaves, I don't know quite what to do with myself, but I am aware that pressures have been lifted and constraints broken. For example, I am writing this while eating an individually wrapped Ding Dong. Could I do that while married?

By Suzanne Finnamore, June 9, 2005 | Read full article