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Rick Brand
With a big war chest, Levy's at a crossroads - July 20, 2008 - When Steve Levy first won his county legislature seat in 1985, he spent $5,000 and a lot of shoe leather walking the district.
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Lynn Brenner
Family Finance: Social Security affects retirement - July 20, 2008 - Your June 15 column was the first time I've ever seen a formula for figuring out how much you need to save for retirement that makes sense. Does it take Social Security into consideration?
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Joye Brown
Training needed on drug to reverse heroin overdose - July 24, 2008 - There's a way to reverse a heroin overdose. And it's been available to addicts, their families and friends, in New York State, since 2006.
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Sylvia Carter
The new and improved chocolate chip cookie - July 24, 2008 - Some things in life cannot be improved, but the Original Nestlé Toll House cookie is not one of them.
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Junior Damato
ASK THE AUTO DOCTOR: Drivers must refuel with premium gas if the car requires it - July 18, 2008 - Dear Doctor: I read an article that claimed unless you own a high-performance car using premium gas is a waste of money. My sister owns a Cadillac and the dealer says she must use premium gasoline. What do you think about using a lesser grade fuel? Dan
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Jessica Damiano
Caring for Gerbera daisies - July 17, 2008 - I have a lot of Gerbera daisies that came back from last year. This spring, I took everything out of my flower garden. The daisies had come back thick and full, but when I replanted them, some of them broke into smaller bundles. They had plenty of roots, so I placed them around my garden. I also bought five new ones. They were all doing fine until three days after planting. They all began drooping, and the leaves are now turning brown. Some of the plants had big pretty blooms, but when this started, the blooms just fell over. I've been babying them like crazy. I'm just hoping they don't die. I read that they like a slow-release fertilizer, so I bought some Osmacoat and added that. I've been watering regularly. Any ideas? -- Stacey Walsh
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Amy Dickinson
Stepmother jealous that husband kisses his daughter on the lips - July 24, 2008 - Dear Amy: How much affection between a father and daughter is considered socially acceptable?
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Lou Dolinar
Making the right call for phone service - July 20, 2008 - Is it time to cut the cord? According to a new survey by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, upward of 20 percent of the population no longer has landlines and relies exclusively on cell phones. Phone companies, most recently Verizon, have begun creating money-saving packages that let you get your Internet service without a landline, something cable/Internet firms have offered for years.
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Gary Dymski
10 easy ways to go green - April 17, 2008 - No matter where I turn, I'm overwhelmed by "green." The other day I came across what a manufacturer assured me was a "greener" brand of toothpaste. (This did not appeal to me.)
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Denise Flaim
Low-cost and free neutering for feral cats - July 24, 2008 - Feral cats are a serious commitment for the animal lovers who dedicate time every day to feed and monitor their colonies.
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Saul Friedman
GRAY MATTERS: Are you making out OK in this slow economy? - July 19, 2008 - I got this idea from Sen. Bernie Sanders, the Vermont independent socialist who is one of the real mavericks and straight-shooters on Capitol Hill. His idea seems most appropriate as we head into the finals of the presidential and congressional campaigns.
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Glenn Gamboa
Oil's well for Blameshift at Vans Warped Tour - July 20, 2008 - Blameshift has always been used to handling things for themselves, from releasing their album "The Test" last year to booking their own tours to even driving their own tour bus.
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Verne Gay
Review: 'The Cleaner' - July 15, 2008 - Reason to watch Benjamin Bratt's return to the tube, as well as A&E's first new drama series in nearly six years. "Cleaner" is also produced by Jonathan Prince, of "American Dreams," a show once embraced by critics.
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Rabbi Marc Gellman
Dieting Tip: Eat Less, Pray More - November 30, 2002 - Q. I overeat all the time, but during the holidays, I really overeat. I've heard that you can pray to lose weight. I'm praying hard, but I don't think it's going to work. Any tips? -- B., West Islip
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Katti Gray
Rev. Richard 'Dick' Lehman is a chaplain forever - July 21, 2008 - When the Rev. Richard "Dick" Lehman was barely out of the seminary, he kept hearing from other young clerics about the merits of what was then the growing field of clinical pastoral education.
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Rafer Guzmán
Clueless K-Fed’s gold-digger rap - October 31, 2006 - Why won't anyone take Kevin Federline's rap career seriously? On the song "America's Most Hated," the hopeful hip-hopper tries to shoot down his critics: "I got 50 mil, I can do whatever I want/I don't need a deal, I can do whatever I want."
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Ellis Henican
Andrew Giuliani files lawsuit against Duke - July 24, 2008 - Andrew Giuliani has hit a rough patch in his drive to become a pro golfer -- being tossed off the Duke University golf team, his lawyers say, over "unfounded accusations" and a coach's "bizarre Lord of the Flies scheme."
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Patricia Kitchen
State CPA group gets seasoned leader from Woodbury - April 17, 2008 - When Sharon Sabba Fierstein is installed May 15 as president of the New York State Society of Certified Public Accountants, she will actually be halfway through her commitment to the role. That's because Fierstein, 48, of Woodbury, has been president-in-training for the past year, working on projects that will be carried forward during her official presidential tenure. The outgoing president said to her recently, "I'm almost done - you're almost halfway through."
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James Klurfeld
School tax cap is Dean Skelos' suburban GOP hope - July 24, 2008 - Remember that old Memorex commercial that asked whether what you were hearing was live or a taped recording?
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Erica Marcus
Shade-grown coffee one of many varieties on shelves - July 17, 2008 - What is shade-grown coffee?
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Carrie Mason-Draffen
Can the boss share salary information with everyone? - April 11, 2008 - DEAR CARRIE: My company recently merged with another, so we have a new district manager. He and I got off to a bad start because he divulged my salary and caused an uproar among my new co-workers.
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Sheryl McCarthy
Girl-fight video producing voyeurism - January 29, 2007 - When I was in the fifth grade, a bullying classmate of mine named Jeanette got it into her head for reasons still unknown to me that she wanted to fight me. She informed me several days in advance of the appointed day and time that I would be accosted on my way home from school and subjected to a beatdown. What saved me was my grandmother, who foiled Jeanette's plan by meeting me after school that day and escorting me home.
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Les Payne
CNN to offer a glimpse of black life in America - July 21, 2008 - As the world's window on the United States, CNN is offering its second documentary on black life in the republic, as Barack Obama is visiting Europe and the Middle East, with the three TV network anchors in global tracking mode.
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Gene Seymour
Review: '12 Angry Men: 50th Anniversary Edition' - March 2, 2008 - Some closed minds cling to the notion that a movie filmed mostly in a single room can't be called a movie. Where's the motion, after all, in a motion picture of people in an enclosed space? Big-screen movies are supposed to be about open vistas, street scenes and vital landscapes, aren't they? Everything else is just theater and television.
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Jan Stuart
Agnés Varda’s feminist lens - January 27, 2008 - In 1954, a photographer named Agnés Varda set up shop in a marshy coastal city in the west of France and made a movie, subsidized by a few thousand francs from her mother. She had in tow a crew of three, plus two theater actors who were being paid in experience and a supporting cast of locals who spoke their lines so informally that their voices would later have to be dubbed. Varda knew nothing about movies, having seen maybe one in her entire life. She was 25.
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Irene Virag
Virag: Forgot eggplants? What was I thinking - July 20, 2008 - I don't know whether time speeded up when I wasn't looking in my vegetable garden this season or I was simply too busy worrying about the roses to notice the Swiss chard, but suddenly everything was going wild. The lettuce was about to bolt, the squash was trying to strangle the tomatoes, the beans were reaching over the obelisk and the eggplant - ohmygod, the eggplant was missing, and it was all my fault.
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Diane Werts
OFF THE WALL: Some 'Mad Men' and some madcap men - July 19, 2008 - Off the Wall gets all soaped up.
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Beth Whitehouse
In Westbury, a Treehouse for kids and parents - July 20, 2008 - Four-year-old Andrew Margaritis, dressed in a white martial arts uniform snugly cinched with a green belt, gleefully flipped his mother onto her back at Orly's Treehouse in Westbury one recent Thursday morning.
