I am on the final day of a Panama Canal cruise on DCL. It has been wonderful, but a small case of homesickness has set in. There are things to which I cannot wait to return. Not that I’ve actually done anything to remedy my bittersweet yearnings but if my shortcomings can help someone else I will not have suffered in vain. My top five tips to avoid homesickness: Choose a stateroom that requires you to walk by a guest laundry area. Sounds silly but the humid smell of dryin

When I was a kid, we lived in a house that also housed my father's aluminum siding company. I was a lisping, fat, artistic, gay kid and every morning I would come downstairs to breakfast in a room full of siding applicators, roofers and construction men. It may have fueled a fantasy or two, but we never sat down to a cup of espresso and witty conversation about the plays of Noel Coward. I felt very alone sometimes. One of the things that kept me company was the television. I