Laurel Dalrymple

Dear Sanrio,

If you name something "Hello Kitty," and proceed to give it cat ears and cat whisker-looking things, then don't be surprised if people think you have made a cat.

I was surprised when I read this story in the LAist: Christine Yano, an anthropologist from the ...

Arthur may have been a Category 2 hurricane, but Richard Neal, of Mint Hill, N.C., stirred up an even bigger storm on social media Thursday by riding out a direct hit from inside an old U.S. Coast Guard Tower about 35 miles east of Wrightsville Beach.

Neal bought the ...

It may seem there's nothing to do but play video lottery, shoot pool and drink at the still-breathing tavern in otherwise dead Swett, S.D. But the town was listed for sale last week for $399,000, and it's actually fairly well-located.

Just a couple of hours away from all of ...

The company's popular new ad for "period starter kits" has lightened the mood on a difficult subject, but NPR's Laurel Dalrymple thinks tween angst is hard enough without petty family...

Blemished, battered and cut, the "British Guiana One-Cent Black on Magenta" is a stamp with a twisty tale to tell, one that begins in the hands of a young Scottish boy and passes through the hands of a killer.

The 1856 treasure was sold at Sotheby's in New York ...

A San Francisco Giants fan holding a baby caught a two-run home run hit by Colorado Rockies player Troy Tulowitzki during a Father's Day game at AT&T Park.

San Francisco's ABC7 News reports that Rob Winner, a fire captain from San Rafael, Calif., calmly snagged the ball with one ...

The largest and oldest house of San Francisco's seven "Painted Ladies," which anchors the corner of "Postcard Row," has finally been sold for $3.1 million, $900k below its original asking price.

The house was originally put on the market in 2010, and was removed after several price reductions. In ...

You can't identify a hero from the outside. You might not suspect that Jon Meis, the Seattle Pacific University student who has been described as private and gentle, would tackle and subdue a gunman Thursday, inspiring others to help hold down the attacker until police arrived. Would those other ...

People don't connect with horses. That is the reason some people say horse racing is failing. Horse racing needs a hero to revive the sport, they say. And that is why all eyes on Saturday will be on California Chrome, the favorite going into the Belmont Stakes, the last and ...

_{This post was updated at 5:18 p.m.}

Trout River, Newfoundland: Population: 600, 1 rotting whale carcass.

The blue whale appeared on the town's shores a week ago, one of two that have washed up recently in western Newfoundland. They are thought to have been part of a group ...

When a plane crashes, it can take many months or years to find the black box that can provide clues as to what happened. Just what are these devices, how do they work, and why can they be so hard to find? With the disappearance of Malaysia Airlines ...

Whom, exactly, does anger help when dealing with addiction? In the Washington Post's Style Blog, Philip Kennicott writes:

"The death of Cory Monteith, from a drug overdose, was sad. But the death of Philip Seymour Hoffman makes me angry. Monteith was a kid wrestling with addiction, ...

With its looming, gloomy high stone walls, crumbling corridors, and stark cells that once housed thousands of hard-core criminals, Eastern State Penitentiary certainly looks haunted. Its 142-year history is full of suicide, madness, disease, murder and torture, making it easy to imagine the spirits of troubled souls left behind to ...

It was a bright and sunny autumn afternoon in Philadelphia. But a menacing storm was brewing near downtown in the form of a monstrous, Gothic-style fortress with 30-foot stone walls, iron gates and foreboding towers.

Eastern State Penitentiary is not only one of the nation's creepiest historic landmarks, but ...

In a small barn on a sprawling farm near Maryland's Chesapeake Bay, something is munching on my blond ponytail, which admittedly looks like a tasty morsel of hay. I turn around and push away the head of a young thoroughbred straight off the racetrack. He inches closer and nudges me ...

All eyes may be on Orb, the winner of the Kentucky Derby and the favorite to win Saturday's Preakness Stakes, but behind this feisty bay colt is a quiet, humble man named Shug McGaughey who has one thing on his mind: his job.

Orb, ridden by Joel Rosario, beat ...