#secrecy

#secrecy

His older brothers were still elbows deep in their stockings, cozy in the matching plaid pajamas, relaxed in the happy sameness of our usual holiday routine. The big fruit and homemade cinnamon buns we snacked on while we opened our stockings, A Christmas Story playing in the background. The plate of Santa's half-eaten cookies perched on the coffee table with his elegantly scrawled thank you letter already forgotten on the floor beside it.

I'm tempted to tell you to break the news to your mom just to inconvenience your dad. I can't believe he didn't even pretend that his concern about getting divorced would be about anything other than assets. And I would like for your mom to get all the money he fears she will, and to live out the rest of her life financially comfortable-and hopefully with a new and more loyal partner.

In 5th grade, we had a class project to interview one of our grandparents. It seemed simple enough: Spend time with someone who loved you and ask them questions about their life. Looking back, I understand the real purpose of the assignment: to foster connection across generations, to learn what our grandparents' lives were like when they were our age.

Corfu is a small city, on a small island in Greece. From my hotel room I can see the green edge of the cricket pitch where, in John le Carré's A Perfect Spy, the Czech agent, Axel, chased Magnus Pym in slow, limping circles.

Conclave means cardinals locked away to elect a new pope, but in 2025, a modern twist complicates this ancient tradition with secrets and controversies.