Savvy Saving Bytes

In passed summers I have lost countless battles with budworms as they happily gorged themselves silly on my geraniums and petunias.  As tiny, newborn worms, they stealthily bored into tender, young flower buds and ate their way out, speedily decimating every bud in flowerpots. Fatter and feistier, they then feasted on every blossom in sight. And [...]

  Henry David Thoreau’s “Walden Pond”, a celebration of solitude, simplicity and self-sufficiency, has inspired and instructed us since it was written in 1854. Thoreau’s ideas and insights about life, formulated while living alone with nature at Walden Park for two years, resonate to this day. On defining success, he said: “If the day and the [...]

Marching along eastside avenues and blooming up and down side streets, spring tulips have blossomed in their radiant, annual show. When I first moved to New York years ago, I don’t remember particularly noticing the flowers. But every year since then, more and more tulips have popped on more and more streets in ever widening [...]

 I was working late last night when I gave my email a final check and found a message from my cousin Mark with the subject line: ”Phillippine Trip…….Help!!! Mark” His message went on to say (verbatim): “I’m sorry i didn’t inform you before leaving, Few days back my family and I made an unannounced  vacation [...]

Yes, I know, my apartment ceiling in this 100-year-old brownstone exploded one night and crashed to the floor in a thunderous cloud of gray plaster dust. And yes, it was scary. And yes, it was a pain setting up camp in a nearby hotel for nine days while the joint was repaired. BUT the fact remains [...]

For all those sitting back watching the horse meat scandal spread like fire across European countries thinking it couldn’t happen here in the US, consider this: After weeks of adamant denials in the UK, Burger King finally fessed up and admitted they have been serving so called “beef” burgers containing horse meat to their British [...]