I never meant to join Facebook. From time to time people invited me to sign up for the Internet social-networking site so I could become their “Facebook friend.” I always thought, “Good grief, I’m already your friend; why should I join some cockamamie Internet thingy when there’s so much I already can’t seem to find time for?” Now I know why. I now know that my friend Victoria, whom I've barely kept up with since 1992 when I moved away from her in Washington, DC, is aliv

I loved newspapers long before I began writing for one. I was one of those kids perched on a bar stool, feet dangling, reading the paper at the kitchen counter. I'd pore over articles, Ann Landers and columnist Dan Valentine, and I’d puzzle through the unintelligible non-words of the stock quotes. On Sundays I’d lie on the floor, the colorful comics stretched before me like a carpet, and I’d roll Silly Putty over the faces. By junior high I wanted to be a journalist. I