Life, Unplugged

story by Suzanne LevyEvery week, on Friday night, something close to a miracle happens at our house.
My 12- and 15- year old stepdaughters turn off their cell phones, unplug from Facebook and step away from the TV. My four-year-old daughter even stops whining to play a game on my computer.
The reason? Our humble tradition of

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3 mins read

Book Review: Hollywood Rides a Bike

Hollywood Rides a Bike: Cycling with the Stars, by Steven Rea, Angel City Press, 160 pp., $20.
Take a ride back in time and pay homage to classic wheels. Steven Rea, film critic for the Philadelphia INquirer and professor at Drexel University, initially took his love for cinema and cycling to the internet in NOvember 2010

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1 min read

Turn Here: Green Art at the Gersham Y

One of Tim Gaudreau’s “Lost Posters” looks for missing coniferous forrest. | Photo Credit: Gersham YThere’s a new art exhibition in town, and its turning heads! Turn Here, a collection of environmentally-themed art, is now on display at the Borowsky Gallery of the Gershman Y. The exhibit features four artists, including Philadelphia-local Amie Potsic. The

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1 min read

Neighborhood Bike Works

Founded in 1966 as a program of the Bicycle Coalition, Neighborhood Bike Works is now the leading nonprofit educational organization for empowering Philadelphia youth in underserved neighborhoods through bicycling. Their flagship program, Earn-A-Bike, teaches youth basic bike repair and maintenance skills, safe urban riding practices, and lessons on health and nutrition, all while refurbishing a

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1 min read

Shoots & Ladders: Bottle of Rain

story by Char VandermeerHeat can beat even the most conscientious of gardeners. All it takes is consecutive 100-degree days to reduce cucumbers and tomatoes to sad piles of shriveled leaves and cracked fruits. But even though the best way to avoid heat damage is to keep roots cool, and the best way

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1 min read

Recycling Challenge: Child Car Seats

story by Samantha WittchenFACT: Americans are estimated to buy as many as 12 million car seats a year.
PROBLEM: Kids outgrow car seats, and the seats have expiration dates (usually five to six years after manufactured), as the materials eventually degrade from ultraviolet light exposure. So, parents generally buy multiple car seats for their children during

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1 min read

Green Living: Lip Service

Last month, I talked about the toxins in skincare products and, unfortunately, cosmetics aren’t exempt from those same dangers. Did you know many lip products may contain lead? Even though it’s not listed in the ingredients label, lead can be a byproduct of the manufacturing process. If you’re putting a product

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1 min read

Urban Naturalist: Fancy Feast

story by Bernard BrownYou won’t hear urban coyotes howling. They’re nocturnal and as quiet as, well, cats. But coyotes are filling the vacancy we created at the top of the food chain when we wiped out grey wolves and cougars in eastern North America. By now, hundreds of the wily canids

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2 mins read
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