When my husband was 3 years old, he rode his Big Wheel around our neighborhood (our families were neighbors) in San Diego, California. This was the 1970s, when every kid was free-range and cruising the streets was standard childhood stuff. In my mind, I picture little Dustin revving his handlebars and making motorcycle noises as […]

NEW YORK At street carts and bodegas, diners and supermarkets, nowhere is the bagel more ubiquitous than New York City. So exactly what makes a New York City bagel good and, more importantly, where can an eager out-of-towner find the best? A few ideas: Black Seed bagels These 2-year-old entries are rolled by hand, boiled […]

Are you still planting your vegetables? Here are a few tips. If your broccoli seedlings are a bit tall and floppy at planting time, you can bury part of the stem so they don’t flop over. I pinch of a lower leaf or two, and then plant the root ball 3 inches or so below […]

JACKSON, MICH. Three siblings in their 90s are once again living under the same roof at a senior living center in Jackson, Michigan. Jeanne Curran, Shirley Chesney and Philip O’Neil have been together for a year-and-a-half at the Arbor North Living Center. They each live in their own apartments, but they still spend a lot […]

I understand why many gardeners shop on Death Row. That’s what I call the pesticide aisle at the garden center. Insecticides, fungicides, herbicides are sold in cheerful colorful bags, often with pictures of blooming flowers on the bag. I don’t shop there and try to avoid even walking down the aisle because the smell of […]

In 2013, my Navy-wife friend Theresa became a widow. Her husband Landon’s helicopter crashed in the Red Sea just a few months after their youngest son had been born and a few weeks before Landon was supposed to come home from deployment. Instead of planning a homecoming, Theresa planned a funeral. Landon never met his […]

HACKENSACK, N.J. The doctor got right down to business after Herbert Diamond bounded in. A single green form before her, she had some questions for the agile 88-year-old: about comas and ventilators, about feeding tubes and CPR, about intense and irreversible suffering. “You want treatments as long as you are going to have good quality […]

Butterflies are the poster children of the environmental movement. Everybody loves them, and wants to see them thrive. But do you know what you can do to help? It’s quite simple, really. For starters, make sure that your environment includes a wide variety of plants that supply nectar and pollen. And even city dwellers can […]

For most things, the military moves at a glacial pace. As recently as the 1970s, there was still a section on an officer’s fitness report reserved for evaluating how supportive his wife was. Did she host enough parties? Attend all the coffees? It wasn’t until 1980 when the first woman graduated from the U.S. Naval […]

UPPER CHICHESTER, Pa. There are not enough hours in the day, it seems, to accommodate Kevin Neary’s busy schedule. Currently, the 33-year-old Upper Chichester resident is working industriously at his computer and on the phone, recruiting participants and sponsors for a fundraising golf event in September. He is also researching graduate schools. In addition, Neary […]