On Your Table: Making the best of this year’s apple harvest

By Cathy Branciaroli,  Food Correspondent, The Times Photo Caption:  Brining pork tenderloins in apple cider and spices yields a moist, juicy and flavorful result. Think apples are “As American as Apple Pie”?  Think again.  Apples as we know them today were not native to North America. When early colonists arrived from Europe, they disdained the tiny crab apples they found here and brought...

Don’t Retire, ReFire: Are you an Influencer?

By Gail Supplee Tatum, Columnist, The Times Does the concept of being an Influencer sound like it means controlling someone’s thoughts or having power over them? It may, but there is another, better, more positive direction I’m taking you in. It’s a direction that you may or may not have considered until now. We must abandon the antiquated way of thinking about the act of influencing. We...

An event to help transition into Fall Fashion

By Kelly Hockenberry, Columnist, The Times This may come as a surprise…but, I am not a fashion expert (although, I sorta have held myself out to be since I started this column six years ago). I don’t have a degree and I can’t even sew a button. I just have strong opinions, a big mouth, and a knack for picking the most expensive options on the planet. What can I say? It’s a gift. However,...

Inner Nature: Eye see colors

By Vidya Rajan, Columnist, The Times Eyes harvest light reflected from objects. Optic nerves transmit that information to the brain. The brain turns that information into an image. Thus eyes are the intermediary between an object and its perception. Let’s look at them more carefully. Don’t shrink from anatomical detail or biochemistry – this is fun stuff. It’s fun because delving into biomechanical...

Nothing is more precious than your smile

By Dr. Stephanie McGann, DMD FAGD, Columnist, The Times There are many wise old sayings involving a smile.  Mother Teresa is credited with saying “We shall never know all the good a simple smile can do.”  A Chinese proverb suggests that every smile makes you a day younger.  It’s no wonder we show people how we feel with our smiles.  Today a simple smile has become big business for corporate...

This is music?

By Kelly Hockenberry, Columnist, The Times I’m old. Like, officially “middle-aged” although I fight like hell to defy it. Beauty serums, hair dye, daily workouts…if it helps me to feel younger, sign me up. In my mind, I’m no older than 25. But, you know what gives me away? Makes me feel like that commercial for Progressive Insurance that says “we can’t save you from turning into...

On Your Table: Don’t rush to say goodbye to summer, just yet

By Cathy Branciaroli, Food Correspondent, The Times Pasta with fresh corn, chicken and vibrant vegetables makes a colorful farewell-to-summer dish. September is all about the fine line between saying goodbye to summer and looking forward to the crisp weather and new flavors that fall brings.  The changeover is happening earlier this year, thanks to a hurricane bringing rain and cloudy, humid...

Don’t Retire, ReFire: Getting back on track

By Gail Supplee Tatum, Columnist, The Times It’s fun to step away from the usual for a while and kick your heels up, but, inherently, we are creatures of habit and feel more centered when we have a routine. What have you set aside? What do you have to take off the back burner and fire it up again? Labor Day, 2018, is behind us and although we still have two weeks remaining of the summer, our...

Super Six: Back to School

By Kelly Hockenberry, Columnist, The Times Why should kids have all the fun with back to school shopping? I say, it is an opportunity for us to freshen up our wardrobe, too. After all, drop-offs, pick-ups, sports practice runs, incessant grocery shopping, and laundry folding deserves a fancy outfit. Correct? Well, lucky for y’all that I rounded up six of my favorite finds! Here we go…

Inner Nature: The eyes have it

By Vidya Rajan, Columnist, The Times The Earth rotates once on its axis every day, with the resultant periodicity of night following day. The predictability of exposure to the energy sources of light and heat have allowed lifeforms to evolve mechanisms to harvest it during daytime and develop materials to store that energy. All energy that emanates from the Sun is in the form of electromagnetic...