The Buffalo News : Life

We have discovered a great way to save money. Researching, but never buying.

One of my favorite summer tips is to plug in an electric fan on our patio. I have found that it helps keep flies and mosquitoes away –and cools us off as well.

Ihave mixed feelings about corn-on- the-cob holders. For some reason, we have a set of pig-shaped ones that look ridiculous, but since we don’t typically butter our corn, our fingers don’t get messy (even if they might get hot).

Last weekend, Channel 4 news reporter Jericka Duncan and Channel 7 news anchor Ginger Geoffery anchored the late sports reports on their stations.

Forget the catchy, provocative title of HBO’s new dark comedy, “Hung,” which premieres with a 45-minute opener at 10 p. m. Sunday.

Travel Channel host Anthony Bourdain’s visit to Western New York to sample the culinary delights here now has an air date.

How Walter Cronkite would have hated this. That’s my best guess. The first stories last week said he was “gravely ill.” The next wave said, no, he was merely struggling with some of the inevitable setbacks of being 92.

Sarah Palin has three daughters – Bristol, 18; Willow, 14; and Piper, 8. Piper doesn’t concern us here. It’s the first two –and particularly the David Letterman show’s stupid confusion of them –who lie at the heart of the current bitterness between Letterman’s show and the Alaska governor whom John McCain plucked from well-earned obscurity to run for vice president.

You can’t retrofit the past to suit you. Or, as L. P. Hartley so beautifully put it, “The past is another country. They do things differently there.” It’s natural to apply today’s standards to past events, but it isn’t right.

Mystery pecan pie is one of 410 recipes in “Pillsbury Best of the Bake-Off Cookbook: Recipes from Americas Favorite Cooking Contest” (Wiley, $29.95). Mary McClain was the $1,000 winner in the 16th bake-off contest in 1964. The collection of recipes includes all the $1 million grand prize recipes, as well as those that have become classics, such as the tunnel of fudge cake or French silk chocolate pie.

Janice Okun

Janice Okun

There’s no hiding from that moment when the well runs dry. Things may have been moving along fine — at a rapid creative clip, even — and then suddenly you catch yourself looking over your shoulder. Then, in an instant, it’s over. The past is now larger and more imposing than the future, and you accept striving to reclaim past glories as your destiny from here on out.

The King of Pop is dead.

Little Boy Blue & the Cockroaches. The Rolling Uglies. The Stoned. The world’s greatest rock ’n’ roll band.

Dear Miss Manners: I am invited to a baby shower, or so I thought!

Dear Miss Manners: Several years ago, I volunteered at an elementary school and became friendly with a mother and son who both taught there. My health has since deteriorated to the point where I am in a wheelchair. I left my volunteer job and the mother and son moved on.

Dear Miss Manners: My younger sister and I have a close relationship, so when she told me that she was interested in someone, I was happy to hear the details of the blossoming of a new relationship. Sadly, both her and my classes will keep her from introducing him to me for a few months at least.

D ear Carolyn: Due to the marvels of Internet an old friend contacted me online. I have not seen him in 25 years. Although we dated for a short time in our teens, we were friends for several years after. We lost touch when I married and moved away.

Dear Carolyn: This year I will be spending all of my vacation time (and money) on traveling for or with my boyfriend’s family. I understand that I do this voluntarily, but in a very real sense it is also somewhat compulsory because that’s what couples do, and because his mother says, “You will be joining us for Christmas, right?” So my boyfriend and I talked about taking a brief, private trip for New Year’s after being with his family for a week.

Dear Carolyn: I am a 28-year-old single male. I am in no hurry to get married, but I’m getting to the point where I’m tired of being the odd man out with friends.

Dear Abby: I have been involved with “Barbie” for about six months. She’s everything I ever wanted in a mate. We have a similar sense of humor, and our goals and ambitions are almost identical. Our values match, too—except for one: My sense of propriety seems to be a stumbling block.

Dear Abby: Your response to “Frustrated Shopper in Idaho” (April 5) made me very upset. I am a cashier in a local grocery store. I understand a shopper’s frustration when she/he gets in the express lane only to find someone with a full cart up ahead. But we cashiers are between a rock and a hard place. If we ask a customer to please go to another lane, the customer will get upset, tell us we’re rude and complain to the manager. If we say nothing to avoid upsetting that one customer, then the others waiting in line get angry.

Dear Abby: My boyfriend, “Beau,” and I moved in together and already we have trust issues. He doesn’t trust me around his computer. He said he has things on it that are part of his past, and it’s none of my business.

What next can we expect from cinema’s enfant terrible, Pedro Almodovar and his fantastically created star, Penelope Cruz? Their tandem filmmaking has already entered history and she is only 35 years old.

There are two women in Hollywood— where women don’t count for much in the scheme of moviemaking—whom I admire greatly. These self-made producing, writing, directing beauties have taken the bull by the horns to make films on their own terms.

“Which individuals have won all four major entertainment awards— the Tony, the Oscar, the Emmy and the Grammy!”

The Amherst Bridge Club at the Airport, 247 Cayuga Road, Cheektowaga will be the only local bridge club open the Independence Day weekend with triple points at 11:30 a.m. today, Saturday, July 4, and 12:30 p.m. Sunday, July 5. Monday the club begins a week of triple red points at all games.

“Children can be awe-inspiringly horrible; manipulative, aggressive, rude and unfeeling to a point where I often think that, if armed, they would make up the most terrifying fighting force the world has ever seen,” wrote Jill Tweedie.

Dear Jim: I have always liked to cook and I particularly like the large professional gas ranges. I am concerned that the big burners will use more gas. Are they efficient and should I get a dual-fuel design? —Jen W.