Valentines Day is the pink and brown cousin of Halloween. By this time next week, we’ll have poked the bottoms of the last of the lonely chocolates in the heart-shaped cardboard boxes, hoping that the square one is caramel and not something oozy like a cherry. When you’re not ...

The letters arrive in the mail most every day now, hand-addressed envelopes that appear to hold a personal letter, but no. They are unsolicited mail from businesses reaching out to remind me of the birthday that’s lurking out there like a doorway to a mysterious, confusing new world. ...