Life Style & Travel

Summer Vegetables Enjoy Warming Weather

UNITED STATES—If there are any cool season vegetables left in the garden, they should probably be harvested pretty soon. If left too much longer, they will be ruined by warming weather. Cabbage will bolt (start to bloom) once it realizes that it is spring. Cauliflower and broccoli, which are juvenile flowers, will become bitter as the flowers mature and...

Regrets

UNITED STATES—Regrets, I’ve had a few, but not too few to mention. In fact, regret has been a dynamic force for change and improvement. I will even go so far as to say that it is one of the secret secrets of success: of course you must put shoes on regret and walk forward with the knowledge so painfully acquired. One...

Lucky Dog

UNITED STATES—Two thousand dollars was an unusually small amount for a trust deed. For that amount I had sewn up as collateral the whole ramshackle six-unit apartment house on 47th St. The payments came from Gus Morales as regular as clockwork, thus vindicating my faith in Gus and his family. There came a time when I would leave Los Angeles...

Should You Avoid Talking About Your Ethnicity?

UNITED STATES—I ran into a post from @theshaderoom on Instagram that discussed how Demi Lovato recently shared her DNA ancestry results on social media and received some backlash for it. According to the post, it turns out that the starlet has Spanish, Irish, British Scandinavian and Native American ancestry. Additionally, Lovato revealed that she is also 1 percent African....

Weeds Have Been Very Busy

UNITED STATES—They are weeds for a reason. They grow like . . . well, weeds! By definition, they are unwanted. Yet, they typically proliferate and grow faster than desirable plants. They aggressively compete for space, sunlight and resources. Many weeds start to grow through winter, and get established while other seedlings are just beginning to germinate, or other plants...

Sitting Pretty

UNITED STATES—Money in the bank--that's what this new iteration of the screenplay way.  Confident, buoyant, even a little cocky. It was heady to be working on it with an accomplished filmmaker, and it gave me something to talk about at parties. But I just realized something: because of my native thrift I had plenty of money now, thanks to property...

Three Reasons You Should Go To Beauty Schools For Salon Services

UNITED STATES—Have you ever wanted to get your hair styled at a salon, but couldn't because it was too expensive? Well, I may have the perfect solution for you. Beauty schools are a great option for those of you that want a salon look, at an affordable price, and here’s why: Reason #1: They’re Affordable Cosmetology schools offer most services at...

Rain Makes Watering Seem Obsolete

UNITED STATES—Watering has not been much of a concern lately. All the rain has kept our gardens too wet to work in. Some of us have been more concerned with erosion caused by runoff. Automated irrigation systems are probably disabled until the rain stops. Soil can drain somewhat between rain, but will not really dry out until the weather...

Collaboration

UNITED STATES—The writer-director Everett Lewis called me up a week or so later and said he had read my screenplay. He said it was basically a mess, but his terms were much more genteel. Within that mess he saw the germ of something real in its treatment of Satan worshiping teens. I had touched on something that was truly...

Roses Get Pruned In Winter

UNITED STATES—Winter is no excuse to be less diligent in the garden. It would seem that gardening would be less demanding because there is less going on, and so many plants are dormant. However, dormancy is precisely why there is so much to do through winter. Bare root plants and bulbs are planted because they are dormant. Fruit trees...