Money can’t buy you love, but it can buy you plants. For millennia, various plants have been billed as aphrodisiacs. These aren’t necessarily obscure species lurking deep in tropical jungles and known only to shamans. Wander over to the produce counter of any modern supermarket and reach for, say, a pomegranate, and you are cradling […]

NEW YORK Bringing a newborn home can be daunting for new parents. Throw in the race to keep up with the latest news and research on what to do after that and stress levels may rise even higher. Dr. Tanya Altmann, a pediatrician in Calabasas, California, professor and an American Academy of Pediatrics spokeswoman, provides […]

BOSTON At a crowded, downtown bar one recent Saturday night, the lights were dim, hip-hop music played and most everyone had a drink in hand. The bar itself was covered with succulents, and the tabletops with accoutrements like paintbrushes, plastic spoons and planters of potting soil. The crowd was here to learn the craft of […]

I have been a fan of homemade granola for as long as I can remember. I literally grew up with it as my mother made it way before it was a trend to do so. When I was in college, I would pack big tins of her granola to take back to school with me. […]

We learned that Lindell was colorblind when he was 4 years old. I was reading “Go Dog Go” and he asked, “What is the orange dog doing?” There was no orange dog on the page, so I asked him to point to it. He pointed to a green dog. Suddenly, other things started making sense: […]

Tea lovers are inclined to brew a cuppa any time of year, but especially now, in the dead of winter. Time to put the kettle on and savor the warm, soothing flavor of steeped tea leaves. Luckily, supermarkets and specialized shops are full of the fragrant dried leaves, in both loose and bag form. And […]

My grandmother used to make jam every year out of the summer bounty of berries. It was a multi-day project involving scorching-hot vats of berries, thickened by pectin and pounds of white sugar, which she balanced with the tang of lemon or lime juice. A simple slab of toasted country bread slathered with her homemade […]

In 1827, a London physician with an interest in caterpillar metamorphosis built small glass boxes to contain the cocoons and emerging butterflies. Peering into the “dirt” in one of the boxes one day, the physician, Dr. Nathanial Ward, noticed that a fern spore had germinated. Ward became so enthralled with the way the developing plant […]

Recently, we learned that our local Toys R Us, along with 182 others around the country, will soon close its doors. The very same day that the news hit, I found myself at Toys R Us with my 11-year-old son, Lindell, who needed to buy his friend a birthday gift. Going to Toys R Us […]

Between bomb cyclones and deep freezes, it’s hard to find the motivation to leave your toasty home for a sweat session. Or maybe you’re just too cash-strapped after the holidays to fork over $25 for your usual barre classes. We’ve rounded up some at-home workouts at all price points that deliver challenging routines with easy […]