Society and Culture

The high-energy dance classes are all the rage, but some critics are taking issue with the fitness craze being labeled as Latin dance. Authentic or not, with 12 million people dancing off the pounds, Zumba business is booming.

Jennifer Lopez and her estranged husband, Marc Anthony, go in search of talent in Latin America on a show that's already airing on Spanish-language television and coming to Fox this weekend.

Back when refrigeration wasn't up to modern standards, Fat Tuesday was a time to clear the house of rich, indulgent foods. A Swedish church in Portland, Ore., keeps the Swedish version of the baking tradition alive, if not the religious observance.

"In the time of Caligula," says American University's Ira Robbins, "it was intended to be representative of a phallic symbol. Not today." Instead, showing a middle finger is an expression of "frustration or rage or anger or protest or disdain."

Watching the Super Bowl ads every year has become not only a parlor game but an annual checkup of the national zeitgeist. Research shows that more than half of those tuning in want to see the commercials as much as — or even more than — the game itself.

It used to be unthinkable for high-end designers to sell their clothes at mass retailers. Now they regularly team up with Gap, Macy's and Target to bring fashion to the masses. The arrangement can help both the designers and the retailers.

Raising her children in Paris, American journalist Pamela Druckerman discovered that the French have mastered the art of child-rearing — or at least they have mastered the art of smoothly assimilating children into adult routines and reducing the stress of parenting.

Low-tech 8-bit and 16-bit game systems inspire most of MAGFest's assortment of live cover bands.

YouTube's future success depends on increasing the amount of time people spend watching videos on the site. The Google-owned website plans to roll out more than 100 new, professionally produced channels in a push to draw viewers away from television, and onto the Web.

Thousands of foster kids are released from the system at age 18 only to realize that they are thousands of dollars in fraudulent debt. It can take years…