Savvy Saving Bytes

Once upon a time I used made-in-America soap exclusively. For the simple reason it was the only soap sold in the stores I shopped in. Then one-day America’s big soap makers had a big pow-wow and said, “Hey, people need soap every day. We can charge a whole lot more for the stuff. Let’s double [...]

Here are some good fortune quotes for our coming New Year: “Through our great good fortune, in our youth our hearts were touched with fire. It was given to us to learn at the outset that life is a profound and passionate thing.” ~ Oliver Wendell Holmes “Labor is the fabled magician’s wand, the philosophers [...]

These red cochineal beetles really get around. First they show up as neon red coloring in foods I recently wrote about in “Hair, Beetles and Beaver Anal Glands in Our Food.” And now the little red buggers have turned up in, of all things, the pink moisture cream I have been daily smoothing into my [...]

My luck in finding great hair cutters who work for a song may have run out. The trouble started last year when my long-time hairstylist abruptly disappeared. After a few cryptic phone conversations, the awful truth came out. She had left the country and returned to her native Afghanistan to work for the US government. [...]

  Doesn’t sound like very tasty eating, right? Well, according to Bruce Bradley, a former food executive, these questionable ingredients have been given more pleasant-sounding names and added to processed foods labeled “all natural”. So all those “natural” foods you’ve been eating lately under the assumption they’re purer and healthier can easily contain any of [...]

For newcomers, New York City’s energy, speedy pace and wow cast of characters can be an assault on the senses, so here are a few safety tips to ease you into the NYC saddle. Number one: be constantly aware of everything and everyone around you. When my teen-age niece first visited me, I stressed this [...]