To fight the odor that often accompanies a bathroom, air fresheners are subtly placed on the counter. To mask the smell of dirty socks, more are placed in the laundry room and bedrooms. To eliminate the everyday aromas from everyday living, cans are sprayed, and liquids and solids are laid out. Air fresheners are relied [...]

Peanut butter is my comfort food. When I’m in a mood, stressed out or dying for a calorie-fix, I turn, not to chocolate, but to peanut butter. The thick, sticky substance satisfies in any form – on an apple, cracker or celery stalk, sandwiched between two slices of bread, swirled into a cookie or all [...]

It is the brunt of endless jokes. Nearly every sitcom has touched upon it at least once, a season. It’s the last thing a man wants to experience, the one thing he prays won’t happen. He sweats over the possibility of hearing, “Don’t worry. It happens to everyone,” and calms himself by swearing he won’t [...]

It’s been a long day. You spent the first two hours of work in your boss’s office, being reprimanded. You spent the following six tediously trudging through a project that should have been completed last week. You fought with traffic the entire way home. You were confronted with a crazed dog and destroyed living room [...]

To the people of the Amazon, the acai berry is no stranger. Legend casts it as a savior, a fruit that was discovered in a time of famine and used to bring a tribe back from the brink of extinction.  Whether or not that’s true, the acai has been consumed for thousands of years in [...]

A country breakfast is a meal associated with America’s idyllic, rural, simpler past. In black-and-white television programs it is brought to life with stacks of pancakes, perfectly drizzled syrup, thick tabs of butter and sizzling slices of bacon. Today, we recreate that exact breakfast only occasionally. It requires, after all, time (a commodity many of [...]

What do you do when little Timmy starts coughing? If he’s an infant, you may reach for the cough medicine, fill up the dropper and coax the liquid into his mouth. If he’s a toddler, you reach for the same or a similar medication, pour out the appropriate dosage, chase him through the house and [...]

For the past three years, September 12 has been declared “Family Contact Day” in Russia. Couples are encouraged to take off work, stay home and have sex with each other. If, nine months later, a child appears, the proud parents receive cars, televisions, money and other various prizes. It is a country’s effort to revitalize [...]

In childhood, gum was grouped with lollipops, hard candies and chewy sweets. It tumbled out of piñatas at birthday parties and rolled from brightly colored machines in the mall. You had to beg your mom before she would buy any, and even then, you could only have one piece. It was a treat. But, you [...]

They are what trapped Persephone in the Underworld.  They are what ancient Egyptians believed would bring a second life, and for those who doubt the apple’s authenticity, they are the fruit that lured Eve out of Eden. They are pomegranates, a fruit entangled in our history, weaved in our words and drifting through our myths. [...]

Traditionally, we associated steroid use with athletes – homerun “heroes”, pro wrestlers and high school hopefuls. Taking them was thought of as an illegal and frowned-upon but all too present and permanent practice in sports. Unfortunately, the end of a two-year investigation in late September changed that thought, expanding it to include, well, everyone. In [...]

In the 1920s, the government outlawed alcohol. We became a dry nation . . . sort of. The ban gave rise to hundreds of speakeasies, secrets stores and backwoods moonshine. No one was drinking in public, but no one had stopped drinking either. And in between sips, the “alcohol-free” citizens were letting the government know [...]

Stand up. Bend forward. Touch your toes. Can’t quite make it? The comforting news is most people can’t. The bad news is that’s not a good sign. The ability to touch your toes is a measure of your flexibility. Not being able to do so means you have some work ahead of you. Fortunately, the [...]

More often than not, needles are associated with causing pain. When you are vaccinated, have your ears pierced or get a tattoo, you try to distract yourself from the metal pressing into your skin. You look away, close your eyes, bite your lip or dig your nail into another finger all in an effort to [...]

Most of us straddle two extremes when eating. We alternate between unconscious overeating and anxiety-induced restrictive eating. One day, we sit in front of the TV, mindlessly popping pretzels into our mouth. The next, we think back to the now empty bag of pretzels and over-analyze every calorie that comes near our lips. Eating becomes [...]