Life Style & Travel

UNITED STATES—Nothing is more frustrating than spending hundreds of dollars each month for content and to never have anything worth watching on Cable TV. It is frustrating as hell America, and my Cable provider bugs me to high heavens not focusing on providing a decent rate and ensuring the consumer receives ample content in the process. I probably spend over...

SAN FRANCISCO—Takeout and delivery orders were not enough to prevent CatHead’s BBQ restaurant located on 1665 Folsom Street in the northern Mission District, from losing the bulk of its business and ultimately closing permanently. CatHead’s BBQ was featured on the Food Network, and has 1,875 followers on Instagram.  Owners Richard Park, and his wife, Pam, were inspired by their memories...

UNITED STATES—It seems to be much too early for cool season vegetables while the weather is still so warm. Summer vegetables, which are also known as warm season vegetables, are still at their best. Most will continue perhaps until frost. Yet, months ago, they also started prior to their growing season. At that time, cool season vegetables, which are...

SAN FRANCISCO—On Monday, August 17, owner Richard Wong announced that Ton Kiang, his family's dim-sum restaurant and Hakka-style banquet hall, will permanently close at the end of the month, The restaurant is located on Geary Street in San Francisco's Richmond District, where the Wong family has been serving dim-sum to San Franciscans for 40 years. Wong's father Ching Boon Wong...

UNITED STATES—I was just reflecting how wherever human beings are involved, there are contretemps. Now during the height of the demonstrations this cottage was like the house at the corner of the revolution. And the dog got to be taken very seriously as a protector. He got to be let out to yap and snarl as those dogs with...

HOLLYWOOD—I really don’t know how to best say this beyond I have been so angry that theaters have been shuttered since March. I am a movie buff, a filmmaker, screenwriter, director and when it comes to cinema, it is best seen on the big screen. We have been placed into a bubble (quite literally) and because of that, filmmaking...

SAN FRANCISCO—Armstrong Brewing, a brewery in South San Francisco announced on Tuesday, August 11 they are closing permanently due to its financial difficulty as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic, as announced on their website. "To our loyal patrons and guests we are sad to announce that we will not be reopening for business and have made the difficult decision...

UNITED STATES—Many who enjoy gardening appreciate fragrant flowers. Many grow particular flowers specifically for their fragrance. Yet, not many consider why so many flowers are fragrant. Plants cannot enjoy their own alluring floral fragrances any more than they can enjoy their own delightful floral colors and forms. They do not expect people to enjoy their bloom either. Human appreciation...

UNITED STATES—Some sudden pizza's infused my psyche the moment I learned that a very great fan of my books was going to be passing through Los Angeles on a moving trip with her husband and a 52-foot truck en route from Washington state to Sun City, Arizona. This is the kind of thing to put any budding author into...

UNITED STATES—Modern urban home gardens are shadier and more confined than older suburban home gardens originally were. Modern homes are both taller and closer together on smaller parcels. Fences are also taller to compensate for the minimal proximity of adjacent homes. Less sunlight reaches the ground. There is not as much space available for shade trees. Nor is there...