Life

If you’ve ever accompanied a girlfriend to happy hour or a monthly book-club meeting, it’s hardly a secret, perhaps, that she can make a glass of chardonnay disappear before you can say “cocktail.

There isn’t a great deal of cocktail drinking on True Blood, the HBO series set in the vampire- and werewolf-infested town of Bon Temps. The vampires drink blood, or the synthetic version that gives the series its name.

Close your eyes and picture a person who pays for sex. Is it an able-bodied, middle-aged, white heterosexual man? University of Victoria researcher Chris Atchison says you’re wrong (at least much of the time).

Even without the colourful, eye-catching posters and banners, or volunteers wearing white branded T-shirts, it didn’t take long to realize you had just wandered into Ska Fest, Victoria’s bustling “festival of the people” at Ship Point last Wednesday.

At what point would you consider someone to be just “tipsy” as opposed to “hammered” on alcohol? The answer, it turns out, depends on whether you’re a man or a woman.

If your last name is Glah, odds are that you’re closely related to Michelle Glah McCleary of Denver.

WALNUT CREEK, Calif. — At the Clarke Swim Center in Walnut Creek, children splash and belly-flop away a Friday afternoon under the sun.

Dear Eric: Can you comment on using cast-iron pans on a ceramic-top stove. Is special care or cleaning materials needed? I love cast iron and have cut down on the sizes to avoid dropping them.

What do dogs have that’s lacking in humans? Harry Truman, the straight-talking former president of the United States, remarked that, “If you want a friend in Washington, get a dog.” But friendship is not the dog’s only virtue.

Welcome to the emotional evolution of the modern workplace. Cutthroat ladder-climbing and the Darwinian survival theory for corporate success are giving way to emotional intelligence and empathy — basic decency — as desired leadership traits.