From the Caregiver's HAErt — Danita LaShelle Jones

For lack of a better phrase, and at the risk of sounding cliché, a summer job for a teenager is a time-honored tradition. It’s such a well-known trope that shows like “Saved by the Bell,” “The O. C.,” and “Stranger Things” have entire seasons dedicated to following teenagers as they…

The tickle around my uvula gave me pause. I knew the feeling almost immediately. And it couldn’t have been happening at a worse time. There’s a strange phenomenon in my house when it comes to illness. Although we’ve reached a point where the flu isn’t passed around our house…

This column will be a little different from the ones I usually write. Normally, I’ll start with a story that celebrates the underdog, the person who had to come from behind to achieve a victory. By the end, I’ll have tied the tale neatly into our hereditary angioedema journey with…

One of the amazing perks of the organization I work for is that it often partners with the theater production company I own. Prior to the director’s tenure there, I’d been commissioned to produce many plays for him over the last 14 years. So, when he started this new position…

“I have a very serious question to ask you both,” our youngest son, whom we lovingly nicknamed Harambe, said as he entered our room. My husband and I paused our random wind-down tasks and gave him our full attention. “There’s a couple that’s going to a park,” Harambe began. “They…

Adult me would love to go back in time and stop the moment, but 7-year-old me was determined to snap what I thought was the most hilarious picture of my parents. During the summer of my eighth birthday, my parents took my sister and me to Walt Disney World. This…

With six seconds left on the clock, the Titans had one chance to clinch the title of the 2000 Super Bowl champions. As a student at Fisk University in Nashville, I’d quickly become a fan of the Tennessee Titans. Because the school’s campus was seven minutes from the stadium, it…

When stealing $150 million from some of the world’s most famous casinos, Danny Ocean knew the plan needed to be meticulous. In 2001’s iteration of “Ocean’s Eleven,” George Clooney’s character enacts revenge on one of his enemies by robbing the Bellagio, the Mirage, and the MGM Grand in Las Vegas.

Every adventure or fighter video game has the ultimate level. It doesn’t matter if it’s something as complicated as Isshin in Sekiro, as pattern-based as facing off with Mike Tyson in Punch-Out!!, or as timing-intensive as defeating Bowser in Super Mario Bros.; video games with boss levels test skill, persistence,…

In “The Butterfly Effect,” the character played by Ashton Kutcher learns that attempting to avoid negative situations doesn’t necessarily lead to better outcomes. Dissatisfied with the circumstances in his life, he discovers that when he reads his childhood journals, he can travel back in time and inhabit his younger self’s…

In the seventh season of the longest-running U.S. animated series, “The Simpsons,” Homer’s bosses at the town nuclear plant attempt to implement a mandatory exercise program to promote a healthier lifestyle among the employees. As any casual viewer of the show might predict, Homer, a character known for his knack…