There is something unexpectedly moving about the image of Queen Elizabeth II sitting with a pack of cards. Not at a state dinner. Not waving from a balcony. Not in one of the heavily choreographed moments that filled so much of her public life. Instead, in a quieter ...

There was a time when Sunday dinner was one of the most dependable parts of the week. It was not fancy in every home, and it did not need to be. What mattered was that people knew where they were going. Around one table, at roughly the same time, family and friends gathered...

Sophia Loren could have eaten anywhere on earth. And for a while, she did. Cannes, Rome, Beverly Hills. But what Canasta players and card-night regulars already know, Sophia Loren figured out decades ago: the best table is the one in your own home, surrounded by people you ...

Canasta, Eleanor Roosevelt, and the Room She Changed Eleanor Roosevelt understood something Canasta players know well. Put the same people in a room each week, and the room starts to matter. In 1933, soon after entering the White House, Eleanor Roosevelt began hold...

Dolly Parton grew up in a two-room cabin in the Smoky Mountains of East Tennessee. No running water. No electricity. Twelve kids crammed into a space most of us wouldn't use as a guest room. But they had a front porch. And that porch changed everything. Read more

If you grew up watching I Love Lucy, you probably remember the card table. It showed up in over 30 episodes across all six seasons. Lucy and Ethel playing canasta across the hall with the Mertzes. The four of them setting up for bridge that somehow never happened bec...

Betty White lived to 99. Most people remember her as Rose from The Golden Girls or the surprise comeback star of SNL at 88. But the part of her life that mattered most happened off camera, around a card table. Read more

Eva Gabor was famous for a lot of things. Green Acres. That accent. The diamonds. The husbands. But here is something most people never talk about. Eva played Canasta. A lot. The Hollywood Canasta Craze Read more

Hand and Foot is one of the most popular Canasta variants in North America. If you already play Canasta, you'll pick this up quickly. If you don't, that's fine too. The rules below will walk you through everything from setup to scoring. The game is best with four pl...

Julia Child didn't become famous because she loved food. She became famous because she invited people into her kitchen. What her dinner parties teach us about building a weekly gathering after fifty.