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Weekly Feature Articles

Discovering Jacques Cousteau
Environmentalism, France, June, Movies, Oceans, Scuba, Weekly Feature Articles, World War II, Autobiography and Biography, Natural World, Science and Technology
09/10/2009 - 4:01pm

Naval officer, inventor, explorer, environmentalist, filmmaker, writer, and international media sensation—Jacques-Yves Cousteau's life was the stuff of legends. He was born in June of 1910. In our modern era of environmental concerns and done-nothing celebs, it's time to revisit the life and work of an extraordinary man.

Childhood among the Rich

Games for Everyone
Chuck Gray, Computers, FYI Articles, Internet, Online games, Tech, Weekly Feature Articles, Tech Answers, Crafts and Hobbies
06/21/2010 - 5:04pm

Counter-culture revolutionary that I’m not, I am nonetheless always on the lookout for media that has been produced outside the mainstream. The catchall term for such media is “indie,” though such a mass grouping for what is actually a very diverse market is woefully oversimplified. But you get the idea:

The Mediterranean Diet - Che Cos'e'?
Diets, Linda Vinnedge, Nutrition, Weekly Feature Articles, Cooking, Health and Medicine
09/03/2009 - 11:26am

Nutrition and weight loss, two hot topics you can't avoid. Pick up any magazine or newspaper, listen to any news show, talk to any doctor, friend, or co-worker and the topic is bound to come up. Oddly, for all our interest in nutrition and weight loss, Americans have never been heavier. Fad diets abound but don't seem to work. How about a new diet—a new diet that's been around for centuries? A diet that lets you eat normal food, is tasty, filling and can help lower cholesterol and blood pressure? Sound too good to be true? Well, the Mediterranean Diet is all of these things.

A Backyard Oasis
Gardening, Linda Vinnedge, Ponds, Weekly Feature Articles, Gardening, Household Maintenance, Self-Help and Instructional
09/03/2009 - 11:26am

Sitting by a garden pond, watching bright fish weave their way through tangles of lilies while listening to sounds of rushing water—does this sound good to you? When we moved into our house we inherited a fish tank and found out just how nice it was. Unfortunately, the tank resembled a moonshine bathtub. So we have decided to give the fish a new home. Planning the pond has been fun, but there are a lot of things to consider before you start digging.

One Father's Homeschooling Experience
Ed DeButts, Fathers, Homeschooling, Weekly Feature Articles, Families, Self-Help and Instructional, Teacher Resources
09/03/2009 - 11:25am

When we were expecting our first child, I started talking with my wife about homeschooling—which I now prefer to call unschooling. She agreed, and we have never regretted it. Raised to be independent learners, both children did well on their college entrance exams and are now away at college.

Daylilies: Beauty for a Day
Flowers, Lee Adams, Weekly Feature Articles, Gardening
09/11/2009 - 12:28pm

I’ve gardened for years, both flowers and vegetables, and am a Master Gardener. My passion, though, is selecting, growing, and enjoying cultivated daylilies. Daylilies (hemerocallis lilioasphodelus, Greek for 'beauty for a day') are so named as each bloom lasts one day, yet the plants may be loaded with blooms, opening over several days, if not a couple of weeks. Daylilies come in a variety of shapes, sizes, and colors. They generally range from about 12” to 46” tall and have blooms from about 2” to 8” across! Colors include cream, pink, peach, wine, almost black, red, orange, yellow, and variations and combinations of those colors.

Meant to Be Read Aloud
Ed DeButts, FYI Articles, Poetry, Weekly Feature Articles, Literary/Classics, Poetry, Teacher Resources
09/02/2009 - 4:46pm

"In a poem, the secrets of the poem give it its tension and gift of emerging sense and form, so that it’s not always the flowering in the poem and the specific images that make it memorable, but the tensions and physicality, the rhythms, the underlying song.

The high spots of a poem could be said to correspond with the bloom in the garden. But you need the compositional entity in order to convey the weight and force of the poem’s motion, of its emerging meaning.

Hey, Honey - What's the Buzz?
Bees, Farm Life, Lee Criscuolo, Livestock, Weekly Feature Articles
09/11/2009 - 12:29pm

The Swarm

One day in late May I looked out the window and saw an enormous thick cloud of bees in front of our barn. What should I do?! Shut the windows and cower? Call the exterminator? Call the nearest beekeeper? I called the nearest beekeeper. (He was just in the next room.) If you haven't got the beekeeping bug, you might not be pleased to have a swarm of bees in your yard, but to my family, it means honey!

I Thought YOU Packed the Water Bottles
Hiking, Lee Criscuolo, Weekly Feature Articles, Crafts and Hobbies, Natural World, Self-Help and Instructional, Travel
05/04/2009 - 10:33am

Due to the stupidity revealed in this story, our names have been changed to protect our identities. My husband, Ed, will henceforth be referred to as "Herb," and I will be "Sally." Herb and I are experienced hikers. We've read A Walk in the Woods.

Goats Got Your Goat?
Farm Life, Goats, Lee Criscuolo, Livestock, Weekly Feature Articles, Household Maintenance, Self-Help and Instructional
03/04/2010 - 3:47pm

When my husband suggested we buy a goat, I talked him out of it. From all I'd heard, a goat would be more trouble than it would be worth. They escape all the time. They eat everything they shouldn't. They get into all kinds of trouble. I knew a woman who had a goat that was always getting out and loved to climb on cars, leaving roofs and hoods covered with hoof-shaped dents. What would we do with a goat anyway?