Some play areas drying up
Spring showers soon will make way for summer scorchers, luring the young and young at heart to their local playgrounds. When they get there, they're likely to find things different than they remember...
Famiglia e cucina
For the past few years, the biggest trend in cookbooks has been a combination of recipes and family memories. In November, Alfred A. Knopf published Lidia's Family Table by Lidia Bastianich. In her...
Setting his sites higher
To a creative visionary like Joey Kilrain, art is found in the unlikeliest of places - including trash bins. One day while strolling to the bank, he noticed a window frame jutting from...
Porky & Porkie
While enjoying a delicious dinner at Cafe de Laos in October, we could not help but notice the renovations underway at the building next door. The sign read Porky & Porkie Korean Barbecue. I...
Play leaves it to chance
There are many ways to trivialize a literally earth-shattering event, as author Craig Wright illustrates with his ill-advised opus inspired by 9/11. His play deals with themes that are as old as humanity,...
Voters, get off the bench
Philadelphia primary elections usually draw fewer voters than do the polls in a small Kansas town. But in the aftermath of an embarrassing federal corruption trial that convicted the former city treasurer, residents might...
Home is where the help is
A huge smile breaks across Dreya Searcy's face as her doorbell rings. She's eager to welcome her guest, Eileen Storm, who has seen Searcy and her family through some tumultuous times. Though the...
Predator seeking ‘patients’
A few Sundays ago, Vikki Gable received a suspicious phone call from a man claiming to be a doctor at Methodist Hospital. The caller, who identified himself as Dr. Goldstein, said he needed...
Texas downsizes
HOUSTON - There was a great old postcard that said "Welcome to Texas," and then, in smaller letters, "So Big!" And indeed it is. Driving from Houston out to the Hill Country, I...