Raina Kelley

James Dyson is not afraid to reimagine the vacuum industry or how consumers see it.

Not unlike the alignment of the stars on the day you were born and where you went to kindergarten, your favorite Christmas cartoon special says a lot about you. But what you'll learn from us is far more valuable.

Even the most ecofriendly people behave in ways that hurt the planet. For things to really change, we have to reconsider what we think of as "green" and stop engaging in certain activities.

They just won't die: a look at the social significance of the greatest monsters of all time.

From "Bewitched" to "The Simpsons," the top shows to put you in the spooky spirit.

In Clint Eastwood's "Hereafter," Matt Damon plays a psychic who communicates with ghosts, continuing the trend of sensitive treatment of spectral beings. Things were better in the days when Hollywood made really scary movies about those who came back from the grave.

From Ginni Thomas to Mel Gibson, famous people humiliate themselves by leaving crazy voice-mail messages that inevitably make their way into the media. Here are some of the most notable examples.

The domestic doyenne is hoping to sell you a new set of kitchen cabinets and a bucket of paint.

The average American—which is to say the kind who is not rich—is still reeling from the effects of our nation's monetary near-meltdown. That's why the Democrats are in danger of losing their majorities this year and why the Republicans lost theirs two years ago. Politicians can blame whoever they want—previous administrations, China, the liberal elite—but the fact remains that half of Americans no longer believe in the American dream.

I don't remember the exact moment I became a mother. My son's birth certificate says 8:18 p.m. on June 18, 2008, but I'll have to take the hospital's word for that—the whole day was a bit of a blur. I do, however, know the minute I declared myself a complete failure as a mom. It was Monday, Sept. 20, 2010, at 9:38 a.m. It was supposed to be my Gabe's first day of day care. But it turned out to be his first sick day instead.

So long to summer scandals we never understood anyway.

How Thomas Keller transformed American cuisine by combining French snobbery with a greenmarket sensibility.

While I can't condone murder, I totally get where all this hero worship is coming from. Here's a look at some of the reasons that Steven Slater has become a modern-day hero.

The U.S. Department of Health's Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA), reported that abuse of opioid painkillers has risen more than 400 percent over the last decade. Which indicates to me that somehow we in the media didn't explain this well enough. Because this a big deal.

Ross Douthat uses the data of Princeton University sociologists Thomas Espenshade and Alexandria Walton Radford to assert that elite colleges and universities have a bias against poor white students in favor of poor minority students. But the Princeton researchers suggest the columnist was "overreaching."

It's time for President Obama to give another "race speech." Because in response to the very public and very undeserved firing of Shirley Miller Sherrod as the USDA's Georgia director of rural development, a phone call isn't going to cut it.

Society favors the young, the thin, the white. I'm not gonna get there. So why obsess over it?

I imagine only the dead haven't heard the Mel Gibson rants. They are, for the most part, incoherent, devastatingly cruel, illogical, self-pitying and nonsensical--punctuated by curse words and weird breathy noises that sound like threatening, though asthmatic, growls. It's pretty raw stuff for an A-list celebrity and probably means the end of his Hollywood career. But it's just another day in the life of people struggling with an addicted loved one.

It's a scene from "Mr. & Mrs. Smith," the 2005 drama starring Angelina Jolie and Brad Pitt that launched a thousand tabloid dramas. For me, that scene was a gift. Finally, a woman who isn't a chump, who doesn't go all gooey when she has to pull the trigger. A woman who can throw a punch.

There is no doubt that Angelina Jolie is one of the most famous women in the world. Yet her humanitarian work is overshadowed by the endless tabloid fodder. Here's a look at her impressive philanthropic efforts.

Does your canine bark or bite when he spots a person of color? That doesn't mean you have the Archie Bunker of Airedales. What's behind your doggie's apparent discrimination.

Seems like all the news that's fit to post is bad. Why even my usual distractions—celebs real and faux—aren't making me feel any better.

One year after his passing, what became of the people and things that made up his life?

The Oxford English Dictionary defines a midlife crisis as "an emotional crisis of self-confidence or identity that can occur in early middle age, associated with the idea that one is growing old or that life is passing one by." But is it possible to freak out about one's lost youth in a dignified way? Here are just a few of the rules I'd like my midlife crisis to follow.

On the eve of the Tony Awards, we look at the most surprising stage performance of the year.

Spare us the moral outrage. Humans are fascinated by death—and, of course, celebrities. Spying on a dead actor is a safe way to consider our own mortality.

Peter Doggett's new book about the Beatles is a good reminder of the very high cost of fame—even after 50 years.

For the vast majority of public-school teachers, so much of their job is out of their control that asking them to be held accountable for their students' performance is tantamount to blaming car salesmen for Toyota's accelerator problems.

Oops, looks like we're going to need a new example of good corporate public relations. The FDA has referred McNeil Consumer Healthcare, the division of Johnson & Johnson that makes Tylenol, to its crime division for allegedly playing fast and loose with quality control.

No matter whether it's staying home, going to work, raising their kids alone or choosing to leave their children in order to provide for them, there is nothing most of us would not do to ensure our childrens' safety. And, for some Moms, giving their children the best chance at a good life means making the most excruciating sacrifice of all: placing them up for adoption.