Dinner

Linda Davidson The Washington Post Mark and Jackie Barden hug their 11-year-old daughter, Natalie, before she goes to school in Newtown, Conn., in May. T hey had promised to try everything, so Mark Barden went down into the basement to begin another project in memory of Daniel. The families of Sandy Hook Elementary were collaborating on a Mother's Day card, which would be produced by a marketing firm and mailed to hundreds of politicians across the country. "A difference-maker," the...

ATHENS, Tenn. — Alabama football coach Nick Saban wants to make sure the defending national champions take nothing for granted. Saban said Tuesday during an Athens (Tenn.) Area Chamber of Commerce benefit dinner at Tennessee Wesleyan College that he recently showed his team a tape of James "Buster" Douglas' stunning 1990 knockout of Mike Tyson as a warning to avoid complacency. "You become the target," said Saban, whose team is seeking its third straight BCS title and fourth in...

Earlier this spring, Sen. Rand Paul and his wife, Kelley, invited a crew from the Christian Broadcasting Network into their Kentucky home for what turned into two full days of reality TV. In a half-hour special, "At Home With Rand Paul," the couple are seen bird-watching in the woods, going to McDonald's and, especially, talking about religion — their belief in traditional marriage and the senator's call for a "spiritual cleansing" in America....

RICHMOND — Vice President Biden will headline the Democratic Party of Virginia's Jefferson-Jackson Dinner later this month . Party spokesman Brian Coy confirmed that Biden will speak at the June 29 dinner being held at the Greater Richmond Convention Center. General admission tickets are $175 and tickets for young Democrats are $100. First lady Michelle Obama came to Virginia last week to stump for Democratic gubernatorial candidate Terry McAuliffe at a fundraiser in Tysons Corner.

In 1961, Phyllis Richman applied to graduate school at Harvard. She received a letter asking how she would balance a career in city planning with her "responsibilities" to her husband and possible future family. Fifty-two years later, she responds. June 9, 2013 Dear William A. Doebele Jr., I'm sorry it has taken me so long to respond to your letter from June 1961 . As you predicted, I have been very busy. Recently, as I was cleaning out boxes of mementos, I came across your letter and...

DEAR MISS MANNERS: I am 27 and have recently stepped back into the dating game. I have noticed an alarming trend: men commenting on women's bodies on the first date. Now, I do not mind a well-placed compliment to a stranger (you look beautiful/handsome, a comment on a clothing item), but I am deeply offended when men who obviously do not know me feel they can comment on my curves or derriere upon first meeting me. It is not just the jerks who are wishing to rush the physical ... even the...

Among the incidents highlighted in a new GAO report on the use of federal "purchase cards": · The Postal Service spent $13,500 on food and liquor for employees and corporate clients at a 2006 dinner at an Orlando steakhouse. · Four Defense Department cardholders charged more than $77,000 at Brooks Brothers and other high-end clothiers for tailor-made suits and other items, including $7,000 in purchases the week before Christmas. · A NASA employee bought two $400 iPods for the personal use of a supervisor, whose name was...

Why are the media cheerleading for President Obama's state dinner instead of questioning the wisdom of having such a pompous, unnecessary and extravagant affair when so many Americans are hurting and sleeping in the streets because of the economy ["Prawns & Protocol," Style, Nov. 25]? The appropriate words come to mind: "fiddling while Rome burns" and "Let them eat cake. " I voted for Obama because I saw a remarkable individual who I thought would relate to average Americans rather than to the power brokers and the celebrities.

In the midst of the explosion-filled, bullet-riddled, Imaxed-out summer movie season, sometimes we need a film that delivers a nice, quiet, thoughtful dinner for two. Enter " My Dinner With Andr é " ($39.95), the 1981 classic that features what is, arguably, cinema's quintessential conversation. Actually, strike that. "Dinner" doesn't just "feature" a conversation. This Louis Malle picture -- shot at the then-shuttered Jefferson Hotel in Richmond, Va., -- is nothing but chat, focused fully on a back-and-forth between playwright...

Last Tuesday evening, Rahm Emanuel quietly slipped into an eighth-floor office at the Watergate. As white-jacketed waiters poured red and white wine and served a three-course salmon and risotto dinner, the White House chief of staff spent two hours chatting with some of Washington's top journalists -- excusing himself to take a call from President Obama and another from Hillary Clinton. As the journalists hurled questions and argued among themselves, Emanuel said: "This feels a lot like a Jewish family dinner.

RICHMOND, Va. — Vice President Joe Biden will headline this month's Jefferson-Jackson Dinner, the major annual fundraising gala for Virginia's Democratic Party. The event is set for the evening of June 29 at the Greater Richmond Convention Center. Once held in February at the height of the General Assembly session, Democrats came under fire from Republicans who claimed the party was doing an end run around state laws that forbade fundraising by lawmakers during the regular...

RANCHO MIRAGE, Calif. — When President Barack Obama and Chinese President Xi Jinping (shee jihn-peeng) sat down for dinner, they feasted on several dishes prepared by one of America's top chefs. The White House says celebrity chef Bobby Flay prepared a menu for the two leaders that included lobster tamales, Porterhouse steak and cherry pie. The meal was served Friday in the dining room at Sunnylands, the sprawling estate in Rancho Mirage, Calif., where Obama and Xi...

LOS ANGELES — Robert De Niro and Morgan Freeman never worked with Mel Brooks, and the Oscar winners came to a ceremony in his honor to let him know they resent it. Brooks received the American Film Institute's 41st Life Achievement Award Thursday, and Freeman and De Niro were among a galaxy of stars who paid tribute to the man behind "Blazing Saddles," ‘'Young Frankenstein" and "The Producers. " DeNiro asked whether there was a casting-couch process he could...

What's the secret to a memorable dinner party? For 29-year-old Sarah Waybright, it's a trifecta of good company, good food and good wine — plus a menu that won't leave guests feeling sick, stuffed or guilt-ridden. "When you think about ‘treating' yourself, it's about instant gratification," says Waybright, a registered dietitian and the woman behind WhyFoodWorks , a D.C. healthful dinner party service. "You go to a wedding, a birthday party or dinner at someone's house and...

This is strikingly, deeply pink food you don't need to be afraid of. You could cook the beets from scratch (see NOTE, below), but we found it easier to use the vacuum-packed cooked beets in the refrigerated section of grocery store produce departments. Serve with a green salad that contains fresh fruit, or alongside a piece of simply sauteed or grilled fish. Adapted from " Heather Christo's Generous Table: Easy & Elegant Recipes Through the Seasons ," by Heather Christo (Kyle, 2013)

Summer can't get here soon enough. No alarms going off at ungodly hours. No hectoring about homework. No imposed bedtimes. But mostly I'm looking forward to the return of "the question. " This summer mealtime tradition was started by my son Andrew. At age 8 or 9, he had correctly figured out that during summer we spent more time around the breakfast or dinner table. Meals were often eaten on the screened-in back porch, which invited lingering conversation. Even as a young child, Andrew was never one to put up with idle chatter.

Children who regularly sit down to a family dinner, parents are told, will be less likely to use drugs or develop eating disorders and more likely to be successful in school. But getting a healthful meal on the table that kids will actually eat after a long day of work, school and extracurricular activities is anything but simple. With the pressure to eat together every night, the logistics of the family meal make dinner more daunting than desirable. "Some people have the skill set but can't get out of their jobs in time to cook,"...

While reading the Style article about the celebrity-studded state dinner for British Prime Minister David Cameron [" Dining with friends ," March 15], I was struck by the idea that the White House should invite an average citizen to each of the dinners. No celebrity should be above other U.S. citizens when it comes to getting an invitation to a White House dinner honoring a foreign dignitary. Who better to be included than one (or two) of us ordinary folks. The choice could be made by lottery, with proof of...

May signals the start of the entertaining season; soon the flurry of graduations, baby showers and weddings will commence. The weather improves, and we are drawn to gathering on patios and porches. For many of us, though, entertaining is a hornet's nest. Normally competent people, wondering what to serve and where to seat the guests, fall to pieces. Washingtonians seem to entertain less than ever, and when we do, our parties can be so stiff: full of buttoned-up, work-focused socializing.

Regarding the May 1 front-page article " Cannibalism found in Jamestown ": There are some things I would rather not know. Many of us probably would prefer to dream that the Jamestown settlers were heroic at all times, despite the difficulties. I can remember the propaganda during World War II that made us feel that our culture was totally right and the "enemy" was totally wrong. I guess the "seekers of truth" should be respected, regardless of where the truth leads. But why was The Post compelled to...