Culture Writing

USA TODAY • 8th January 2023

What it's like to spend a day with the San Francisco 49ers' mascot, Sourdough Sam

What it's like to spend a day with the San Francisco 49ers' mascot, Sourdough Sam

It’s 60 and sunny when I cross the county line into Santa Clara, home of the San Francisco 49ers. It’s Christmas Eve, and I’m headed to Levi’s Stadium to watch the 49ers face off against the Washington Commanders.

Well, really I’m there to spend some quality time with Sourdough Sam, the 49ers' beloved but elusive mascot, who has invited me to watch him work.

By the time I park, the tailgate is already in full sw

Texas school shooting shows us that teachers do far more than educate, they are our children’s protectors

To be an educator is to stretch your capacity for family wider than most of us will ever understand. Teachers also do the impossible math of divvying up the fierce protectiveness of a parent so there’s enough for each of their students without ever diminishing its potency.

Fashionable and utilitarian, the fanny pack rises again. What's behind the renaissance?

Correction & Clarification: A previous version of this article misspelled Anush Mirbegian's name

Dad-core may be having a comeback. Adam Sandler is the newest fashion icon and "it-girls" are donning chunky new-balance sneakers, oversized sweatshirts, and wait … is that … a fanny pack?

From street style to concert couture, young people are bringing a classic bag back from oblivion where it was chucked presumably sometime post-90s. After a brief heyday, the fanny pack became inextricably bound t

Suddenly repulsed by your partner? You may have gotten 'the ick.' Here's what that means.

Suddenly repulsed by your partner? You may have gotten 'the ick.' Here's what that means.

Have you ever dreamed up your perfect partner? He's soft-spoken, romantic and …. wait, he's into live-action role-play? Ick! (Or ... maybe not?)

Fostering a fledgling love affair can be exciting but also precarious. What if you learn something new about them that makes you cringe? Worry not, modern dating lingo has a term for that: "the ick."

It's a catchall for turnoffs large and small, and a difficult

D'arcy Drollinger, first-ever drag laureate in US, wants everyone to be more fabulous

D'arcy Drollinger, first-ever drag laureate in US, wants everyone to be more fabulous

It is a Saturday morning and D’Arcy Drollinger is mid gloss application, her lips puckered and ready for a fresh sheen. Her hair is styled in a brassy blonde bouffant and her neon pink outfit is accented by heavy costume jewelry.

She has a packed schedule for the day: first, a "Pink Triangle" ceremony honoring the symbol of resistance forced on LGBTQ people in Nazi prison camps, later a fundraiser, and then r

Cheer up, buttercup. Here's how to be happy (according to people who study it.)

In the past 12 months, just over 27,000 people a month have searched the phrase "how to be happy," according to Conductor Searchlight.

A spoiler alert before you read this article: We don't have the answer. Good news for us, no one else does either. The truth is that happiness requires a highly individualized recipe and any attempt to deliver some definitive and universal answer would be foolish. You'd have better luck consulting a Magic 8 Ball, or some other source with a false sense of confid

'The love that's in the atmosphere is just palpable': Drag Story Hour dazzles its audience

Correction & Clarification: A previous version of this article misspelled the names of Amy Hamberry and Letitia James.

On an unseasonably warm winter Sunday in Manhattan’s West Village, a bashful 8-year-old mixed with a crowd of brightly adorned adults.

“It’s fun … and you get to see people who are beautifully dressed,” Fox McGinnis said, describing why he likes Drag Story Hour so much.

Fox formed part of a gaggle of other children, parents and a smattering of New York dignitaries for the eve

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