PBS'FRONTLINE correspondent Martin Smith unearths the details of the world’s first global Ponzi scheme — a deception that lasted longer, reached wider and cut deeper than any other business scandal in history — in The Madoff Affair, airing on PBS.

We've encountered an era demanding our talents as grandparents-who-entertain. A grandson is spending his after-kindergarten hours with us on a daily basis, at least for a while. Two granddaughters have been with us on a twice-week basis for eight years.…

Philadelphia's Franklin Institute is displaying in an exhibition titled Galileo, the Medici and the Age of Astronomy, one of those gorgeous brass instruments that resemble jewelry: an armillary sphere. All ages can participate in Science in Play, a…

Rose Mula writes: iPod — Do You? My tiny pink marvel can hold hundreds of songs, so I’ll be able to add many more oldies but goodies. If it’s true that exercising your brain cells can stave off Alzheimer’s, my grandniece’s gift has made me immune. So tha…

The week ahead Holds lots of dread: I have to buy a bathing suit. I’d be a dope To have much hope Of finding fit (don’t mention cute). In fact if my long search is fruitless I may well have to dive in suitless. Julia Sneden writes and rhymes about…

Ferida Wolff writes: My husband and I went on vacation to a place both foreign and familiar to me — the Middle East. The foreign aspect was that I had not been in that part of the world before. The familiar part had to do with my paternal family. My…

Julia Sneden writes: "While it is often left to the populace to vote on bond issues creating new schools, the need for school maintenance and repair seems to me to be every bit as vital. Too often it is shoved aside for other matters, buried so…

Jo Freeman writes: Log Cabin Republicans are very dedicated, stalwart Republicans, who refuse to be run out of their party despite a hostile atmosphere. They have occasionally found allies among some of the other outsiders in the party, but not witho…