The Buffalo News : Life

Saturday, July 4, 2009

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Susan Martin

Going on a research spree

Updated: 07/03/09 6:55 AM

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

 (Updated: 07/03/09 6:55 AM )
Susan Martin: A little summer help from the pros

Updated: 06/26/09 8:19 AM

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.

 (Updated: 06/26/09 8:19 AM )
Susan Martin: Break out the summer dining ware

Updated: 06/19/09 8:46 AM

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).

 (Updated: 06/19/09 8:46 AM )

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Alan Pergament

Sports on the Air: Sportscasts fading on local news
News TV Critic

Updated: 06/27/09 11:51 AM

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

 (Updated: 06/27/09 11:51 AM )
Dark humor fills HBO series

Updated: 06/25/09 7:02 AM

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

 (Updated: 06/25/09 7:02 AM )
Bourdain’s Buffalo segment to air in July on Travel Channel
NEWS TV CRITIC

Updated: 06/20/09 6:45 AM

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

 (Updated: 06/20/09 6:45 AM )

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Jeff Simon

Jeff Simon: Walter Cronkite's place in TV news
News Arts Editor

Updated: 06/23/09 3:49 PM

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.

 (Updated: 06/23/09 3:49 PM )
Jeff Simon: Palin jokes, reaction out of line

Updated: 06/16/09 8:31 AM

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.

 (Updated: 06/16/09 8:31 AM )
Jeff Simon: Wright masterpiece, the Larkin building, was a victim of the times
NEWS ARTS EDITOR

Updated: 06/09/09 9:08 AM

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.

 (Updated: 06/09/09 9:08 AM )

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Janice Okun

Gourmandise

Updated: 04/05/09 7:45 AM

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.

 (Updated: 04/05/09 7:45 AM )
Gourmandise

Updated: 03/22/09 7:49 AM

Janice Okun

 (Updated: 03/22/09 7:49 AM )
Gourmandise

Updated: 03/08/09 7:07 AM

Janice Okun

 (Updated: 03/08/09 7:07 AM )

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Jeff Miers

Now on 23rd album, the Church shows how to stay inspired
NEWS POP MUSIC CRITIC

Updated: 07/03/09 8:53 AM

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.

 (Updated: 07/03/09 8:53 AM )
Michael Jackson: An appreciation of a musical genius
NEWS POP MUSIC CRITIC

Updated: 06/26/09 9:32 AM

The King of Pop is dead.

 (Updated: 06/26/09 9:32 AM )
Buffalo musicians, new reissues celebrate the Rolling Stones
NEWS POP MUSIC CRITIC

Updated: 06/26/09 7:50 AM

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

 (Updated: 06/26/09 7:50 AM )

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Miss Manners

When is an invite not an invite?

Updated: 07/02/09 7:00 AM

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

 (Updated: 07/02/09 7:00 AM )
Ill woman hounded for present

Updated: 06/30/09 6:55 AM

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.

 (Updated: 06/30/09 6:55 AM )
Face to face beats Facebook

Updated: 06/28/09 7:20 AM

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.

 (Updated: 06/28/09 7:20 AM )

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Carolyn Hax

Carolyn Hax: Yes, your husband overreacted

Updated: 07/01/09 8:45 AM

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.

 (Updated: 07/01/09 8:45 AM )
Trip is least of your problems

Updated: 06/28/09 7:20 AM

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.

 (Updated: 06/28/09 7:20 AM )
Carolyn Hax: Don't force change in your dating life
TELL ME ABOUT IT

Updated: 06/24/09 9:34 AM

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.

 (Updated: 06/24/09 9:34 AM )

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Dear Abby

Couple needs to compromise

Updated: 07/03/09 6:55 AM

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.

 (Updated: 07/03/09 6:55 AM )
Reminder: Cashiers are people, too

Updated: 07/02/09 7:00 AM

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.

 (Updated: 07/02/09 7:00 AM )
Computer is not all he’s hiding

Updated: 07/01/09 7:05 AM

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.

 (Updated: 07/01/09 7:05 AM )

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Liz Smith

Critics go mad for Cruz
Tribune Media Services

Updated: 06/13/09 6:27 AM

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.

 (Updated: 06/13/09 6:27 AM )
Nia Vardalos does it all
Tribune Media Services

Updated: 06/12/09 6:58 AM

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.

 (Updated: 06/12/09 6:58 AM )
All things Tony
Tribune Media Services

Updated: 06/06/09 7:00 AM

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

 (Updated: 06/06/09 7:00 AM )

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Other Life Columns

Duplicate Bridge: July 4

Updated: 07/03/09 1:27 AM

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.

 (Updated: 07/03/09 1:27 AM )
Babies captivate the country
Tribune Media Services

Updated: 07/03/09 6:55 AM

“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.

 (Updated: 07/03/09 6:55 AM )
Dual-fuel range the way to go

Updated: 07/03/09 6:55 AM

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.

 (Updated: 07/03/09 6:55 AM )

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