Life Style & Travel

UNITED STATES—Flowers have a bigger and better agenda than coloring our gardens and homes. They bloom to get pollinated. Their color and fragrance are designed merely to attract pollinators. Less vain but more abundant blooms take advantage of the wind to disperse their pollen. Once pollinated, flowers fade and deteriorate as resources get diverted to the production of seed...

UNITED STATES—No one would consider me a fanatic of the ever growing Crossover segment. But with nary a sign that it will soon reach maturity and eventually die off, there comes a point where even I have to admit that resistance is futile. It simply isn’t realistic to expect automakers to cater to consumers who can afford a car...

HOLLYWOOD—On a Friday in the spring 2016, after being away for several days, I encountered a group gathered around the bar, glummer than usual. “Did you hear the news?” motorcycle John asked. And I knew. I’d been laying odds for a long time. Would the couple who’d bought the cafe five years earlier stick to their plan of going...

UNITED STATES—Saint Francis is actually the patron saint of animals. Saint Fiacre is the real patron saint of gardening. However, statues of Saint Francis, usually accompanied by birds, and sometimes by a deer, are popular in home gardens. Has anyone ever seen even a single statue of Saint Fiacre? Statues of Snow White are more common; but her only...

UNITED STATES—The baristas gave their all and infused the place with their own personalities, actresses, dancers, mystics, animal trainers and even a 15-year-old from the hood, who later came back after college for another stint. Yevgen was the first manager, 18 years old, and future trader in classic sports cars. One of the baristas, Amy, besides being a dancer...

UNITED STATES—This does not seem like such a mild climate when it is difficult to distinguish between the time and the temperature on a local bank clock tower. You know; when punctuation is the only difference between four minutes past one, and one hundred four degrees. Fortunately, like mild frost in winter, hot weather does not happen too often,...

NORTHRIDGE—In a handful of colleges today, materials discussing deaf children within the education system, and the problems that schools often cause are required for students to learn. Such materials may include the critical and disabling pedagogy that can be found in schools, which either enable or hinder children from learning all they can. This writing will briefly discuss teaching...

UNITED STATES—Part of the mystique of Cafe Om was for people to gather at this hole in the wall and know people by face and remain ignorant of their resume. Which goes contrary to what is usually so up front here when it comes to small talk: what project are you doing? What is your goal? There’s something nice about...

UNITED STATES—When a tree falls in the forest, and there is no one around to hear it, does it make a sound? Of course it does! There is just no one to hear it. Why should that be such a profound question? A falling tree makes a mess too. Anyone who does not see or hear it in action...

UNITED STATES—The cafe next to the laundromat celebrated the first year of new ownership last month on Fountain Avenue, triggering a festival of remembrance. I heartily took part, since I am reputed to be a person who goes back to the beginning, before the beginning. I have been there for a lot of it. Often when asked for my business...