It’s the time of year when people get sick. Running noses, nasal stuffiness and chest congestion are the common symptoms of becoming sick during this time of year when the temperature plunges and November rains come pouring in. Many people want the quick fix to relieve symptoms that deplete our energies, so they run to [...]
It is the time of year to be merry and full of cheer. It is also the time of year for depression to hit. It is also the time of year to be broke. I think I’m all of the above rolled into one. I’m human and I don’t think I’m any different from many [...]
The house was erected with basic colors and amenities: red, yellow, white, black and blue and running water, a functioning toilet and shower. It was the simplest of houses made out of the simplest of toys. Like the old commercials toted: “A child’s pride is the best thing a toy can build,” so was the [...]
As the state of Pennsylvania scrambles to find new sources of revenue to balance the state budget, a proposed arts tax has come into play. The proposed arts tax would add an additional 8 percent to the cost of tickets for museums, plays, zoos and historical parks in Philadelphia and 6 percent for the rest of the [...]
America can boast it is the leader for the incarcerated. Our prison system is on the stock exchange. It’s not necessarily the prison system, but the companies that run them. Some companies explicitly, others implicitly while companies have gone through buy outs, mergers and name changes. America is not the lone profiteer. Europe is profiting, [...]
The first celebrated Labor Day was on September 5th in New York City in 1882; however, Labor Day wasn’t made into a national holiday until a labor union strike. It came about with the Pullman Strike in Chicago on May 11, 1894. Pullman Palace Car Company workers walked out due to reduction in wages. Considering [...]
Téa Obreht has her fictional debut in the New Yorker with “The Tiger’s Wife.” The story, taken from her novel that’s due out this April, questions fact and fiction based upon memory. Obreht begins her story with one fact. The city was bombed in 1941 by Germans. The story immediately breaks from that shifting into [...]
The other dust collector, 10 year-old Gregory Evans of Tuscola, Illinois isn’t fascinated with dust, but with the machines that collects it. Collecting vacuum cleaners since he was three-years old, he has gotten to know the machines quite intimately differentiating the vacuum cleaners by sound. His unwavering excitement in finding a new model to add to his [...]
Many different cultures have impacted this great city of Philadelphia which can be seen in the available foods at the market and in restaurants. It has opened my food palate and cooking skills. Crisscrossing different cuisines to create something new, I have made dishes like Israeli couscous with a Mediterranean flare served with tropical-style salmon. [...]
Next year’s Easter molds should be interesting. When they asked me if I wanted a hot chocolate pedicure, I said sure. What I didn’t understand was that they were asking me. As I patiently waited for my hot chocolate, lying back relaxing, while the masseuse was working between my toes, I asked if my hot [...]
