Over the three-day Dragon Boat Festival national holiday (June 14-16), one of my students took me to visit his hometown in Sichuan Province.

Which is harder, trying to get a job or trying to keep one?

All Chinese high school students hoping to attend college next fall take the National College Entrance Exams (gao kao) on June 7, 8 and 9.

Sometime in the autumn of 1970, I was visiting my father at a restaurant in Chattanooga for a rare weekday lunch. I don’t remember the occasion; it was unusual for me to have lunch as a junior in high school in a downtown restaurant.

We learn early in life that unforeseen tragedy is among the most difficult things we have to deal with, yet understanding that reality doesn't lessen the pain when tragedy strikes -- especially when it involves a high school senior, days away from graduation.

People are weird about love.

I’ve always been interesting in gardening.

In the Florida panhandle one weekend in February, I watched demonstrators gather by the hundreds on the beach.

If you're under age 35, you probably don't remember the days when people used to smoke in meetings.

In a two-hour candidate forum for the 9th Congressional District, confrontation was lacking among the six participants, but levity punctuated the public-policy remarks by candidates.