By FRANK BRUNI
BEFORE millions of television viewers, under the dewy and beneficent gaze of Oprah Winfrey, the two of them traded moony glances. They held hands. They spoke the language of sonnets and torch songs.
“It was like an arrow was shot through my heart,” one said, describing an early meeting. “I felt weak at the [...]

By NICHOLAS D. KRISTOF
Any time anyone tells you that a dream is impossible, any time you’re discouraged by impossible challenges, just mutter this mantra: Tererai Trent.
Of all the people earning university degrees this year, perhaps the most remarkable story belongs to Tererai (pronounced TEH-reh-rye), a middle-aged woman who is one of my heroes. She is [...]

By JAN HOFFMAN

BY now, most high school dress codes have just about done away with the guesswork.
Girls: no midriff-baring blouses, stiletto heels, miniskirts.
Boys: no sagging pants, muscle shirts.
But do the math.
“Rules” + “teenager” = “challenges.”
If the skirt is an acceptable length, can a boy wear it?
Can a girl attend her prom in a tuxedo?
In recent [...]

by Larry Gallagher

If you happen to ride your bicycle to Ernesto Sirolli’s Sacramento, California, residence, as I did, your effort won’t go unrewarded. When he opens the garage door, you’ll be treated to a glimpse of his prized possession, a white 1951 Morgan Roadster. The Morgan Company, he’ll quickly and enthusiastically tell you, is a [...]

By SINDYA N. BHANOO

The ice atop Mount Kilimanjaro in Tanzania has continued to retreat rapidly, declining 26 percent since 2000, scientists say in a new report.
Yet the authors of the study, to be published Tuesday in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, reached no consensus on whether the melting could be attributed mainly [...]