Whenever the topic of insurance for property damage or theft comes up, it commonly gets directed toward homeowners. But renters of houses and apartments need insurance, too. This is commonly referred to as renters insurance.    

It may be hard to see how the act of video-recording a person in the nude is either no big deal or a very serious offense based solely on whether the individual agreed to be video-taped. This is where the law could use some rocket fuel.

One of the biggest questions you will hear about the universe is if there is life on other worlds. I suppose it depends on your definition of life. Known as “exobiology,” the study has become a serious sub-field of both astronomy and biology. What is most unique about the study is, to date, the subject remains completely hypothetical. There may not even be anything to study.

"Mom, how big is a googol?” my 5-year-old asked. It’s been 25 years since I last sat in a math class, but the term sounded familiar. “Where did you hear that word?” I demanded. Math terminology isn’t exactly profanity, but in my book, it comes close.

If there is one piece of knowledge that you take away from learning about child abuse, it's that it is circular – a curse given from parent to child. If you were hurt as a child, there’s a good chance you are going to hurt your own children when you grow up. The simple explanation for this occurrence of repetitive abuse is that the child who grows to be an abuser knows only one way to raise a child – the way he or she was raised.

I never really imagined myself at 39. After today, it won't take much imagination. I'm not that worried about it. Compared to 19 and 29, things are looking up. I am stronger than ever before. I am far better at golf than I was then. I weigh less and I think I've even gotten a little smarter.

If we do not adopt campaign finance reform laws, then the principle of local control, however exulted in principle, will be lost to America in practice. I’m afraid that’s likely. But in the meantime, I’m celebrating a win for democracy writ small.

Halloween’s over. That can mean only one thing: It’s time for full-scale Christmas advertising.
And that always makes me think of Stan Freberg’s recording “Green Chri$tma$.” (That’s the correct spelling. As Mr. Scrooge himself says, “Christmas has two s’s in it, and they’re both dollar signs.”)

I stepped off the airplane in South Africa, my Evian bottle empty after 17 hours in flight.

There’s a bookcase in every room of our house, from the three-shelf antique in the kitchen filled with cookbooks to the battered four-shelf unit in the family room stuffed with paperbacks. My husband collects biographies of famous newsmen. I collect Nancy Drews from the 1960s. We’ve got self-help, reference, humor, history and a smattering of fiction. Hello, my name is Saimi, and I’m a bibliophile.

Google rolled out a new initiative today that will allow humans access to all their thoughts as they think them in real time. A spokeswoman for Google said the company’s new thinking service, tentatively titled "Rodin" after Auguste Rodin, the sculptor of "The Thinker" statue, will be formally unveiled at an event in front of the Lincoln Monument next Wednesday. "I think Lincoln would have embraced this new leap forward in data collection," she said. 

In politics, what really happened isn't nearly as important as deciding what it meant. There were four prominent elections Tuesday across the country that were being used as a de facto referendum on President Barack Obama and the Democratic majority's young administration. It was a split decision. But with both gubernatorial elections going to the GOP, the Republicans certainly have a right to claim victory - even if that victory was not complete.

“You look like you’ve been chasin’ cars.” My mom once told me that after I came in from a particularly hard afternoon at play. She was big on quaint sayings that let you spit out the truth as if you were Will Rogers.

Just about everybody who owns a dog thinks his or her dog is smart. I've never really felt that way about any of the dogs I have had. They were lovable, cute, loyal, cuddly and great company, but I never thought of them as that smart. I used to tell people that I never met a dog that could beat me at chess.

Dividing the week into seven days apparently worked pretty well for the ancients, but it’s not enough for modern times. Contrary to the belief of my two teens, I was not born in ancient times, so I can’t speak from personal experience. However, I am still fairly comfortable stating that life moves a lot faster nowadays. It’s getting faster for everyone, but especially for us 40-somethings.

I stayed up really late Tuesday night reading and watching analysis of Tuesday’s off-year elections. I’ve been in so many spin zones I feel as if I’ve spent 10 ride tickets on a Tilt-a-Whirl. The bad news for Democrats in the exit polls was, as James Carville would put it, “the economy, stupid.”

“Survivor: Samoa” is as fierce and competitive as prior “Survivor” excursions, but the deception, physical demands, weather woes and short tempers seem to be at an all-time high. I know what you’re thinking: How could it get any worse?

I took a bit of flak, back in the spring, for writing that the New York Mets are the perennial little brother to their cross-town nemesis, the Yankees. But it’s true, and this season bore that out, as if such boring were any longer necessary.

When I see a bug in my apartment, or when I inadvertently walk through a spider’s web, I typically proceed through the following reactive steps: shudder, gather myself, watch for a bit and then plan my next move, which often involves the bug’s demise.

The heart of “Mad Men,” and the source of many of its greatest moments, is the off-the-charts business acumen of leading ad man Don Draper. Everything you really need to know about business can be learned watching Don Draper: