Lifestyle

American business leaders sometimes talk about workforce productivity trends the same strained way you might expect a perfectly healthy hypochondriac to check his body temperature three times a day. (Remember “nobody wants to work anymore”? The U.S. unemployment rate is 3.5%.) The new social media meme about “quiet quitting” — not actually quitting, but doing the bare minimum at your job — is the latest vascular twinge to send CEOs back to the carpet with two fingers to the neck, checking for skipped heartbeats.

FICTION

Girl Scouts of the USA have unveiled a new cookie for the 2023 sales season, but you won’t be able to buy the Raspberry Rally directly in person.

Dear God,

“The goal of parenting is not to control, coerce or punish children into being ‘good.’ The goal of parenting is to grow children who can feel all of their feelings and become empathic problem-solvers, and to help children reach their fullest potential.”

Do you wake up feeling sluggish most mornings? Have caffeinated beverages become a necessity to help power you through the day?

Dear Answer Angel Ellen: Don’t you just love it when a favorite product is discontinued?! There is an ultra gentle shampoo I’ve used for years (ever since my prior shampoo from Clinique was discontinued). Now I can’t find that particular product at my local beauty supply store or online. Looks like they discontinued it. I have sensitive skin and also prefer no fragrance. Otherwise, my hair is healthy, not dry, not damaged, not colored, not thin, not frizzy. Can you recommend a gentle, fragrance-free shampoo?

HAVRE DE GRACE, Md. — The wood slabs in Tom Deno’s workshop are knotty and gnarly, pitted and crooked — a homely look that only Mother Nature could love. Or Deno, who fashions custom furniture from the twisted chunks tossed out by lumber mills. From those orphaned slabs come countertops and coffee tables, mantels and headboards, each a kitschy creation forged by Deno’s hand in Havre de Grace.

Q. My ex’s new girlfriend is simply trying too hard and it’s really upsetting me. I can see she wants us all to get along. I can see she loves my kids. I’m not intimidated by any of it. What does bother me is that she is doing the special things I have always done with my kids and it hurts my feelings. That is our time. I feel stupid saying something. What’s good ex-etiquette?

BALTIMORE — Araba Maze noticed neighborhood kids gathering around her as she read children’s books to her niece on her front stoop. As she wrapped up storytelling, one of the kids asked, “When are you gonna do this again?”