Life Style & Travel

SAN FRANCISCO—Wyeth Coulter, 18, held his last charity pumpkin sale in San Francisco on Tuesday, October 27. Coulter had been growing pumpkins and holding fundraisers for the past 11 years to help local charities in the Bay Area. Coulter was only 8 when he founded the project that united his love for autumn and Halloween to benefit the homeless community.  At the time,...

UNITED STATES—Wildlife belongs in the wild. Many of us appreciate it there and get pictures of it to share with others as if it is rare and unusual. Deer, raccoons, skunks, squirrels, gophers and so many other residents of the wild are not so appealing in-home gardens. They all need to eat. None are tactful about it. Some eat...

UNITED STATES—Fads certainly complicate gardening. Most are merely marketing tactics. Most are bogus. Many even contradict their justifications! For example, most new, trendy and supposedly sustainable plant cultivars are genetically weak because of extensive breeding. Drought tolerance likewise has potential to be a constructive fad but is so commonly misapplied. Incidentally, its terminology is somewhat inaccurate. Drought is an extended...

UNITED STATES—I used to be jealous of opinions because I was around people who were so fluent in opinions. I took it as a sign of their intelligence. They knew French fries were only good when eaten warm, or I should change my 666 phone prefix because the diabolical connotations may prevent some people from calling me. These things...

UNITED STATES—It seems like such a waste that so many of the prettiest blooming plants are generally regarded as temporary. They are grown in the most synthetic of environments, forced into bloom, sold at their prime, and kept as potted plants just long enough to finish their bloom cycle. When their bloom deteriorates, they typically get discarded, or planted...

  UNITED STATES—Pollarding is extreme pruning. It removes all but the most substantial of limbs and trunks. Coppicing is even more extreme. It leaves only stumps above ground. Both are common and respected arboricultural techniques outside America. However, they are vilified here. Actually, very few arborists here know how to pollard and coppice properly or admit to it. There are many...

UNITED STATES—The die was cast: An opalescent pile of pill-pods glittered hypnotically in the noon day sun, which spared the eye little that was unpleasant, such as the raw welts near the base of the spine where the pill-pods had been lanced. It seemed later, but the sundial—one of the crude technologies permitted by the old lady inside The...

Early spring bulbs that went into their gardens last autumn are now blooming. Some are already done. Some summer bulbs should begin to bloom as the last spring bulbs finish. A few of them might bloom as late as autumn. Ultimately, like the earliest of spring bulbs, all eventually finish. As they do, their deteriorating flowers will necessitate deadheading. Deadheading...

UNITED STATES—Winning over serious performance sedan enthusiasts hasn’t been an easy task for Lexus. From the get go, Lexus was always about serene cruising. One of the first LS400 (first production model from Lexus) commercials played with this idea by taking the viewer for a ride as one-by-one, wind noise, road noise, and finally driveline noise were muted until...

UNITED STATES—Many Americans consider Planes, Trains, and Automobiles to be the best Thanksgiving movie of all time. They’re probably right, but I, personally, would rather vegetate through the annual Thanksgiving Bondathon (i.e. James Bond marathon) after a well-deserved feast of tryptophan and stuffing. I guess everyone’s got their thing. This year, however, there’s even more reason to bone up on...