A&E

DEAR MISS MANNERS: There is a private, parochial school near where I live. The tuition is expensive, and the school has a reputation for being an elitist club.

Some people are born to be caretakers.

Crime fiction thrives all year, but summer is an ideal time to plunge into the genre when you’re not in the pool. (Or maybe even when you are.) Here are some of the thrillers we’re most looking forward to this season.

From staff reports

Dear Annie: My girlfriend’s father has a knack for calling or texting me at the most inconvenient times during the day or night. I get random texts from him while I’m in meetings or have my boss in my office.

You move into a new space or want to renovate your current living room and are faced with the daunting decision. Where do I place the TV?

Few things spice up a dish – or, for that matter, an herb garden – like basil. With flavor profiles that include sweet, spicy and even citrusy, the herbaceous staple is a favorite of both growers and chefs.

Dear Doctors: My grandmother is 81 years old and still active. She comes to yoga classes at my gym, and we have a lot of fun. Now she wants to try weightlifting, but my parents are saying it’s not a good idea. Would it be dangerous for her? Couldn’t it maybe be a good thing?

Lucasfilm president Kathleen Kennedy says there’s a gender disparity in the “Star Wars” universe. In an interview with the New York Times on Wednesday about the latest installment in the franchise, showrunner Leslye Headland’s Disney+ series “The Acolyte,” Kennedy said women tend to “struggle” due to the space saga’s male-dominated fandom.

Jeremy Renner has found his first movie role since his nearly fatal snowplow accident. Renner is the latest star to join Rian Johnson’s new “Knives Out” film, “Wake Up Dead Man: A Knives Out Mystery,” a Netflix representative confirmed Thursday to The Times.

DEAR MISS MANNERS: I suffered a fall at a social gathering. I got hurt pretty badly and ended up with large scrapes and bruises for over a week. I’m lucky I did not break a bone, but I was pretty shaken up.

Since the late 1990s, Taking Back Sunday has explored various forms of alternative rock and has performed at countless venues. On Thursday, they will add the Knitting Factory to their extensive repertoire.

Dave Fulton is an internationally recognized comedian. He has performed in multiple countries, including Ireland, Great Britain, Australia, China, Japan, India and Kazakhstan. But before the motorcycle-riding, ice-climbing comedian – who has lived in London since 1997 – toured the world, he grew up in Coeur d’Alene.

Dear Annie: I have an elderly family member who constantly interrupts me. Not only does she interrupt when I’m talking to her, but she eavesdrops on my conversations with others and interrupts those, too. She has been doing this for decades, so I highly doubt it’s related to age. It’s extremely rude, and I’ve tried to kindly tell her many times. She doesn’t think that it’s wrong to behave this way – says it’s just part of having a conversation and continues to interrupt me.

When ABC's enduring medical drama "Grey's Anatomy" made its debut in March 2005, Netflix was still a DVD-by-mail company. There were plenty of pagers but not an iPhone in sight when viewers met Meredith Grey and the show's first set of surgical interns.

Dear Doctors: We use mints to help our 6-year-old with carsickness. When the mints came from the tin, they didn’t help at all. But when we started keeping them in a prescription pill bottle, the “medicine” made his symptoms go away. Is this the placebo effect? Why does it work?

Spokane native Dmitrious Bistrevsky, who played Darth Vader in the “Obi-Wan Kenobi” series on Disney+, is in Spokane this week making several appearances, including at the Lilac City Comicon on Saturday and Sunday at the Spokane Convention Center.

On Saturday, Brickwest will be holding its first annual all-day music festival, Brickfest. The event is free to the public and will run from 2-10 p.m. in the West End Plaza, featuring 10 bands on two stages.

Hailing from a family of academics, Matthew Broussard had followed in his parents’ footsteps for a time by studying engineering and mathematics, but strayed from that path when he decided to pursue a career as a comedian.