The Buffalo News : Life

We have discovered a great way to save money. Researching, but never buying.

One of my favorite summer tips is to plug in an electric fan on our patio. I have found that it helps keep flies and mosquitoes away –and cools us off as well.

Ihave mixed feelings about corn-on- the-cob holders. For some reason, we have a set of pig-shaped ones that look ridiculous, but since we don’t typically butter our corn, our fingers don’t get messy (even if they might get hot).

If anyone was more stunned than many Buffalo Bills fans when Chris Berman was named by Bills owner Ralph Wilson to present him at the Pro Football Hall of Fame induction ceremonies, it was the ESPN anchor himself.

Last weekend, Channel 4 news reporter Jericka Duncan and Channel 7 news anchor Ginger Geoffery anchored the late sports reports on their stations.

Forget the catchy, provocative title of HBO’s new dark comedy, “Hung,” which premieres with a 45-minute opener at 10 p. m. Sunday.

I’ve never met Dr. Conrad Murray, the cardiologist who administered CPR on Michael Jackson just before his death. I have no reason—other than fairness—to hold any brief for him. And yet I think his treatment in the first 10 days of the Jackson case is immensely revealing about the way TV news does business, especially cable TV news.

How Walter Cronkite would have hated this. That’s my best guess. The first stories last week said he was “gravely ill.” The next wave said, no, he was merely struggling with some of the inevitable setbacks of being 92.

Sarah Palin has three daughters – Bristol, 18; Willow, 14; and Piper, 8. Piper doesn’t concern us here. It’s the first two –and particularly the David Letterman show’s stupid confusion of them –who lie at the heart of the current bitterness between Letterman’s show and the Alaska governor whom John McCain plucked from well-earned obscurity to run for vice president.

Mystery pecan pie is one of 410 recipes in “Pillsbury Best of the Bake-Off Cookbook: Recipes from Americas Favorite Cooking Contest” (Wiley, $29.95). Mary McClain was the $1,000 winner in the 16th bake-off contest in 1964. The collection of recipes includes all the $1 million grand prize recipes, as well as those that have become classics, such as the tunnel of fudge cake or French silk chocolate pie.

Janice Okun

Janice Okun

There’s no hiding from that moment when the well runs dry. Things may have been moving along fine — at a rapid creative clip, even — and then suddenly you catch yourself looking over your shoulder. Then, in an instant, it’s over. The past is now larger and more imposing than the future, and you accept striving to reclaim past glories as your destiny from here on out.

The King of Pop is dead.

Little Boy Blue & the Cockroaches. The Rolling Uglies. The Stoned. The world’s greatest rock ’n’ roll band.

Dear Miss Manners: I’m a 22-year-old college student. I’ve always made an effort to respect my elders, but what am I supposed to do when confronted by an elder who doesn’t respect me?

Dear Miss Manners: Dear friends of ours and we apparently have different views about the role of answering machines. We often choose to not answer the phone if we are home doing something else or simply don’t want to answer the phone at a given moment.

Dear Miss Manners: If a relative doesn’t respond to a wedding invitation, or if they RSVP by checking ‘no’ and adding no congratulatory note, is that a signal that they do not wish to associate with the marrying couple?

Dear Carolyn: Our 60-year-old mom has five grown children, 22 to 39. Two of us have recently discovered that she has been gossiping, telling stories out of context, spinning the truth, spreading rumors and sometimes telling outright lies about each of us to the others.

Dear Carolyn: I have been happily married for three years. Because we live 30 minutes from my in-laws, we see them pretty much every week.

D ear Carolyn: Due to the marvels of Internet an old friend contacted me online. I have not seen him in 25 years. Although we dated for a short time in our teens, we were friends for several years after. We lost touch when I married and moved away.

Dear Abby: My boyfriend, “Kent,” and I have been together almost three years. It started out as a long-distance relationship, but my children and I have recently moved to his town.

Dear Abby: If someone is in an “unhappy” marriage with kids, is it a good idea or bad thing to wait until the kids are adults before considering divorce? The parents of almost everyone I know divorced while they were young. Mine did when I was about 20. But I know many couples who are staying together only for their kids, and I wonder if that’s best for everyone. Your thoughts, please.

Dear Abby: You got it all wrong with “Dismayed in Roswell, Ga.” (April 8), who complained that his daughter’s fiance didn’t ask his blessing before proposing. I’m the mother of two high school-age daughters, and it would signal a rupture in our relationship if my husband and I were not included in the process.

What next can we expect from cinema’s enfant terrible, Pedro Almodovar and his fantastically created star, Penelope Cruz? Their tandem filmmaking has already entered history and she is only 35 years old.

There are two women in Hollywood— where women don’t count for much in the scheme of moviemaking—whom I admire greatly. These self-made producing, writing, directing beauties have taken the bull by the horns to make films on their own terms.

“Which individuals have won all four major entertainment awards— the Tony, the Oscar, the Emmy and the Grammy!”

“I Love You, Beth Cooper” (PG-13, 1 hour, 41 minutes) : An awkward mix of fresh ideas and teen movie cliches, this comedy about losing one’s virginity after high school graduation (screenplay by Larry Doyle, based on his novel) lacks essential charm, which is a near-fatal flaw.

The generation gap is nothing new. Margaret Mead once suggested that grandparents and their grandchildren are natural allies because they are both battling the generation in between.

Kudos to the great Whoopi Goldberg who covered herself with glory playing an addiction recovery sponsor in Benjamin Bratt’s A&E drama “The Cleaner.” She was described therein as being “like a Nubian queen living in a funky old beach bungalow.” Bratt adds: “Talk about an iconic persona. I think over the years people have forgotten what an amazing actor she is!”