Traverse City Record-Eagle

Kathy Gibbons: Overlooking selling point
So son applies to a bunch of graduate schools. He gets into several. Some are in interesting places -- New Mexico, Massachusetts, Colorado. And then there is Muncie, Indiana.
Kathy Gibbons: Risk can be all right
I've been writing weekly like this for about 15 years, monthly for a few years before that, and feel I've come to know you collectively -- and a lot of you individually -- in that time. Now I've been laying the groundwork to start a business and it's time to take the plunge.
Kathy Gibbons: Senior (discount) moments
When do you reach the point that you actually wish you qualified for the senior discount, rather than being put off when it's proffered before your time?
Kathy Gibbons: Being grownup
The older I get, the more I feel that an important part of this process called life is gaining insight over time into things that didn't seem as clear before.
Kathy Gibbons: Wanted: Parents for six
A feature that always made an impression on me in another newspaper was "A Child is Waiting." It ran regularly, with pictures and little profiles of children available for adoption. Well, here in Traverse City six children are waiting — all in one family.
Kathy Gibbons: Truth is preferable
Growing up the oldest of five, attending Catholic school, I developed a strong sense of responsibility -- and guilt. So I tried to be good. Because if I wasn't, I might have to lie about it. And I didn't like lying. It made me feel red-faced and sick.
Kathy Gibbons: Not just a prop
Watching the unfortunate events in New York unfold involving married Gov. Eliot Spitzer's allegedly hiring call girls, including the obligatory press conferences with long-suffering wife at his side, so many things came to mind.
Kathy Gibbons: Kindness tips the scales
A woman I know had a really bad day. I told her later that all it would have taken to get the tears flowing for sure would have been some stranger doing something nice for her. Because that's what happens.
Kathy Gibbons: Readers ask the darndest things
Many readers don't have Internet access, or if they do, some find it easier to call us for information. I hope that never changes. I like the idea that a newspaper remains a focal point in people's minds.
Kathy Gibbons: Before girls go wild, watch this
The confession of Joran Van der Sloot should be required viewing for any girl heading to Mexico or similar spot for spring break. Van der Sloot is the Dutch student long suspected in having something to do with the 2005 disappearance of American teen Natalee Holloway on spring break in Aruba. Her body was never found.
Kathy Gibbons: Fashionably frumpy not the goal
I've often thought that there are basically two types of women in the world -- metaphorically speaking, that is: Women who leave bathroom stalls smelling noticeably sweet and pretty, and the ones who don't.
Kathy Gibbons: Embracing Valentine's Day
The other day, I mentioned to someone that I don't like Valentine's Day. One really bad Valentine's Day a long time ago kind of killed it for the ones that came after. A few other women have told me similar stories.
Kathy Gibbons: Catching up on minks, memory
Today is for catching up. A few weeks ago, I wrote about mink and its popularity with earlier generations. Several people wrote to reminisce -- including one grandmother who thought I was making fun of those who loved mink. I wasn't; I was just reflecting on it.
Kathy Gibbons: Funeral home comes alive
When Peg Jonkhoff woke up the morning of the Michigan presidential primary, she didn't know she'd be playing host to a candidate for president in her family's Traverse City funeral home.
Kathy Gibbons: Iraq snow melts away too fast
It created a healing, soothing picture. For a moment. I'm talking about the news that came from Baghdad a week ago Friday. It had snowed for the first time in recent memory in the heart of the Iraqi capital.
Kathy Gibbons: Grandma's warning proves all too true
She is old enough to know better. I mean, it wasn't my generation that originated the admonishment to always dress in underwear that won't embarrass you, because you never know when you might get in an accident and end up at the hospital. So here's a story about a woman I know from one of those older generations. It was the holidays. Things were hectic. She had gotten way behind on chores, including laundry.
Kathy Gibbons: Musing on mink and another generation
Mink has never been on my radar. Even if I had the money, I'd rather use it for a nice vacation, or even better, a really cool stove. Not so our grandmothers. I was reminded of that attending a funeral visitation for a friend's grandma. It was clear she had been a beautiful and elegant woman. And draped softly around her shoulders was a simple mink stole.
Kathy Gibbons: Eye-opening look at PR in Acme tactics
Call me naive. It has been 30 years since I earned a degree in journalism. But before coming here, I had journalism and public relations jobs. But I never imagined the role of public relations was to conduct major subterfuge -- even sabotage -- on behalf of a client.
Kathy Gibbons: Reality can really hit home at Christmas
The holidays seem to shine a spotlight on people going through tough times. It's like they can go along just trying to cope, but come the holidays, it's right there, in their face: be happy, whether you have it in you or not.
Kathy Gibbons: Buying American a challenge
My brother got me to thinking about this. First, I must say you would never know that he and I were born in the same blue state, from the same blue parents. While I have stayed true to my roots, there have been times in the past decade or so that I've wanted to write Rush Limbaugh to ask what he did with my brother and would he please return him.
Kathy Gibbons: Questions, passwords tax hard drive
So it was an email from the cell phone company with the directive to update the security question on my account. They said it no longer is safe to use your mother's maiden name, city of birth or father's middle name -- I guess those are things other people could find out easy enough -- and to come up with something else.
Making up the rules as we go along
It must have started in childhood. I'm talking about that primal, oh-so-certain feeling of when things are fair, and they aren't; when you try to do the right thing, and other people don't. It can make for some silly moments in adulthood.
Kathy Gibbons: Crocodile tears when dog doesn't come
I am part of a big family of people who: 1. Have dogs; 2. Have cats; or 3. Have no pets at all. There's a cat at my house and she hates everyone. She barely tolerates people, and if a dog comes, she hides until the last bark fades as they pull out of the driveway. Then there's me. I like dogs enough, and plan to have one someday when I want someone to take care of again.
Kathy Gibbons: Dry spells go with territory
This is just one of those weeks. There's not a thing that I'm burning to write about for this column. I think occasionally coming up blank is a sign that I'm just out of juice at those particular times. Sometimes there's so much going on that there isn't time to reflect and then write about anything on a meaningful level.
Kathy Gibbons: Just another day in the neighborhood
Back when my daughter first went away to college two years ago, I bought her what I thought were two essentials: A canister of mace. And these little alarms you attach to a window that shriek if anyone tries to jimmy it. She scoffed at both. I found them later, tucked into the summer clothes she sent back home after cold weather arrived that fall. I thought I was vindicated, though, after she related a little story about a "freaky" thing that happened last weekend.
Kathy Gibbons: The most important wedding guest
Nicole Musall is planning a wedding with all the trimmings for next May. It will be a church ceremony with a reception for about 300 people -- "the big shebang," she said. Yet, she's already married.
Kathy Gibbons: Experience finally carries weight
It's all my fault. I am one of those moms who, it was just easier, too often, to do things myself. So there were tasks my kids should have learned but didn't. If I had it to do over, I'd do it differently. That said, it means things come up now that they are (somewhat) on their own that put me in the position of being helpful from afar. Suddenly I feel important, like I still have some use.
Kathy Gibbons: Reluctant to pose for the camera
We hate being in pictures. For those of us who get Bell's Palsy that doesn't go away, that's one of the things we have in common. Bell's Palsy is a virus that attacks a nerve in the brain and makes one whole side of your face droop. For most people, it goes away within a few weeks or months.
A glaring omission in new diet plan
So the gym was offering a deal. For $29 -- less than $3 a week -- you could enroll in a 10-week nutrition and exercise program designed to help women lose weight and get in shape. It was too good not to do.
Kathy Gibbons: Forgotten prediction is bittersweet
When I think of Carol, I always think of her in the same way: as blowing into my life, turning it upside down, and blowing out. Carol was a reader of this column who called several times last summer to comment on this or that. Early on, she mentioned matter-of-factly that she had terminal cancer.
Kathy Gibbons: Where's the humanity in these policies?
For a long time, I've been troubled by U.S. policies on immigration. Two events heightened that. The first was Sept. 11, 2001. The second was a trip to Mexico.
Kathy Gibbons: Modern mop a midlife find worth waiting for
You know your life is pretty sad when the most exciting thing that has happened in a while is discovering the Swiffer. Still, it has been momentous.
Kathy Gibbons: New Yorkers are ones who shock and awe
Going to see my cousin who works in Manhattan, as the anniversary of the Sept. 11 World Trade Center attacks loomed again, talk was bound to turn to what it was like living through such a horrific day.
Kathy Gibbons: Coping with Asperger's, mental illness
A few weeks ago, I wrote a column about a 44-year-old woman with Asperger's Syndrome. Some very moving letters came in response.
Kathy Gibbons: Where there's a drawer, there's a will
We're in the car, and daughter opens the glove box to look for a straw. She doesn't find a straw, but she does come across an old envelope with writing on the back of it, reads it and extends it toward me, saying, "What is THIS?" Uh-oh.