If there was any doubt that mankind is plunging to new depths and that the end of this world is imminent, it comes in the form of a new game for the popular Nintendo platform Wii.  Ubisoft’s We Dare, currently targeting a European audience, is a multi-player, highly sexually-charged game that is a veritable orgy […]

Lady Luck was on your side.   While on vacation in America, you hit the jackpot in a casino and won 4,500 in U.S. dollars.  However, U.S. tax legislation determined that you only took home $3,150.  If you are a resident of Canada, Austria, Denmark, Hungary, Ireland, Italy, Spain, Sweden, Turkey, or other nations, you are […]

Mix two parts  Jakob Dylan to one of Tom Waits with a splash of Bob Seeger and you have Bronx-born Ari Hest, an up and coming singer-songwriter whose new album Sunset Over Hope Street debuts next week on the Downtown/Mercer Street Records label. Like many fresh young artists, Ari has had to penetrate the music […]

When my grandmother was thirteen, she was yanked from the place of her birth, a lush island off Italy’s western coast, a stone’s throw from Amalfi, to immigrate to America.  There, she had a rude awakening.  Not only were the streets not paved with gold, as a young teen, she was forced to become the […]

“Fifty-seven channels and there’s nothin’ on.”  When Bruce Springsteen penned and sang those lines, Cable TV was in its heyday. Enter Direct TV.  With better service and far more options in programming, Cable television had found its match, and more. With over 265 channels, Satellite TV caters to the preferences of every member of the […]

By all indications, the volatility of the economy won’t be abating any time soon.  Like a tree buffeted by high winds, its strength will continue to be tested; it will dip beneath changes in pressure, such as escalating debt and the current unrest in the Middle East.  Investors in this environment are understandably wary.  However, […]

With all the troubles in this world causing such doom and gloom in so many countries, and echoed by the media, one has to stop and wonder what the future holds for this planet.  Its Creator had a vision of “peace on earth, good will towards men.”  But that all flew out the window when […]

  Numerous once-thriving retail establishments and service organizations operating out of brick and mortar buildings have closed their doors or seriously downsized.  The handwriting is on the wall: businesses desiring to remain “in the black” must capitalize upon the Internet to generate business and decrease overhead (rent, utilities, and other costs) associated with physical locations. […]

Years ago, a good friend of mine, born into the Jewish religion and open to all faiths, advised me never to negate “the power of Mary.”  She was referring to Mary, the mother of Jesus.  Dan Brown’s* feminist spin on early Christianity notwithstanding, I’ll confess that I had never really prayed to Mary.  I tended […]

After the last appreciable storm of 2011, a major branch on one of my oaks cracked beneath the weight of the white stuff, making casualties of three more branches.  When the snow melted, my husband played Paul Bunyan by removing the affected branches. After I played Florence Nightingale by doctoring the many cuts on his […]